


The Dragon Queen

by esm3rald



Series: Female Harry Potter as Daenerys Targaryen [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: A little Telltale Game (but not really - only Asher), A little reckless Daenerys (because Harry is reckless - and Daenerys herself), Actually Clever Tyrion, And she never lost a battle so..., Aunt/Nephew Incest, But she's right most of the time so..., Canon-Typical Misogyny, Canon-Typical Violence, Daenerys can fight, Daenerys is practically Queen of Essos, Daenerys is used to get things done her way, Daenerys rebuilds Valyria, Daenerys the Conqueror, Dany and Arya as close as sisters, Dark(ish) Jon, Dragon dreams, Dragons, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Smut, F/M, Female Harry, Female Harry Potter, Female Harry Potter reborn as Daenerys Targaryen, Fireproof Daenerys, Golden Company, Harry Potter reborn as Daenerys Targaryen, Incest, It'll ignore season8 almost completely because it's a total mess, Jon Snow has magic (eventually he’ll be able to use it), Jon Snow is a Targaryen, Magic (but not Harry Potter magic), Magical Blood, Manipulative Sansa, Mentions of Rape, Mentions of underage sex (13 years old like book canon), Mix of Book!Jon and Show!Jon (excluding season8), More Daenerys Targaryen with Harry Potter's memories (and some magic) than Harry as Daenerys, New Valyria, No more useless Varys, Part 2 of Female Harry Potter as Daenerys Targaryen series, Political Conflicts, Pragmatic Daenerys, R Plus L Equals J, Rebirth, Revolutionist Daenerys, Scheming Sansa, She gets things done even if her own advisors thinks she's a little mad for her ideas, Stark Blood is Magical, Stormcrows, Targaryen Blood is Magical, The War for the Dawn, Varys the Spymaster, Visions, Warg Arya Stark, Warg Jon Snow, Warrior Queen Daenerys, White Walkers, khaleesi - Freeform, mix of books and show, not for fans of Sansa, second sons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 16:54:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 10
Words: 41,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18608653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/esm3rald/pseuds/esm3rald
Summary: Daenerys Targaryen, who used to be Harry Potter in another life, is now Queen of Dragons' Bay. She's almost ready to sail for Westeros until she receives an unexpected visit. Jon Snow has just found out about his real parents and has been banished from the North by his own sister Sansa, who is now Queen in the North. He sails to Meereen to meet Daenerys and asks for her help in taking back the North so that they can prepare for the threat of the White Walkers, which Sansa doesn't believe in. Their meeting will change everything for them. Sequel to 'Mother of Dragons'. The first four chapters are summary chapters for 'Mother of Dragons', not real chapters.





	1. Summary Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, you're all probably going to hate me but I've decided to divide my story 'Mother of Dragons' in two parts. In fact, I turned 'Mother of Dragons' into a prequel for this story here, 'The Dragon Queen'. That is because I'm impatient to get to the good stuff (and Jonerys). This story will start at the end of season6, timeline like, but since many events differ from canon, these first few chapters (four) will work as a big summary for what was supposed to happen in 'Mother of Dragons'. Though I will continue that story, I prefer to concentrate on this one, at least for now. If you'd prefer to wait for the prequel first, then this story is not for you, however, just to warn you, it may take a long time for me to write it.
> 
> I advise you to read this because, while some events are the same as canon, many are different. (BTW, some parts are taken directly from 'A Wiki of Ice and Fire' and 'Game of Thrones Wiki').
> 
> Daenerys will look like Emilia Clarke as Dany but with violet eyes.
> 
> This story will, of course, be Jon/Daenerys eventually (therefore Incest but it's Jonerys so who cares?). Jon Snow will look like Kit Harington but with grey eyes 'so dark they look almost black' like in the books.
> 
> BTW, if you're not a fan of Daenerys or Jonerys, don't even bother reading this story. Any negative comment about Jonerys and Daenerys as a character (or Jon for that matter) will be erased. Don't lose your time and mine.
> 
> This story will ignore season8 almost completely because it's a joke. Also, this story won't be for Sansa fans. Arya will have a positive role in this story and Bran a better one than in Canon but Sansa will become, in a way, one of the human antagonists together with Cersei. So you've been warned. If you like Sansa, don't read this story!

_**-Prologue:** _

_Harry Potter sacrifices herself to kill Voldemort. She wakes up in a limbo that looks a lot like King's Cross and meets Regulus Black. Regulus tells her that she was supposed to be the last horcrux destroyed but since Nagini was still alive when Harry died, that will force both her and Voldemort to remain stuck in limbo for eternity, unable to move on. (Their souls are so intertwined that what happens to one, happens to the other)._

_However, there is a way to solve the situation. Harry became the Master of Death by reuniting the Deathly Hallows, even for a short time. For this reason, she will be given a second chance at life. She can't return to her body and her old life but she will be given a new life, in a new world. That will severe the connection between her and Voldemort and will allow Death to claim Voldemort's soul in full like He was supposed that Halloween night in the year 1981._

_To sweeten the deal, Regulus says that Death will also allow Harry to bring someone with her, her godfather Sirius Black. Since Sirius didn't die in a normal way but by being thrown through the Veil, his soul got stuck in it and he's also trapped in a limbo. This will grant him freedom._

_Harry, of course, accepts. Regulus leaves her with a warning before she's sent to be reborn. What is written on her parents' tombstone: 'The last enemy to be destroyed is death', will become literal. Harry doesn't understand what it means._

_**-Interlude:** _

_Harry is reborn as Daenerys Targaryen, a princess of a land called Westeros. A rebellion breaks out and her entire family dies: her father, King Aerys, is killed by one of his Kingsguards, her mother Rhaella dies after giving birth to her, her brother Rhaegar, the heir to the Throne, dies in battle, her niece and nephew – Rhaegar's children – and his wife Elia, are killed as well.  
_

_Viserys, Daenerys' brother, is crowned King in Dragonstone, though Aegon and Rhaenys were still alive at the time, and Daenerys is chosen as Viserys' heir, until Viserys would marry and have children of his own._

_Daenerys, Viserys, their uncle Sirys (who was once Sirius Black) - brother of Daenerys' parents, Aerys and Rhaella, and a sworn Kingsguard - and some loyal guards, Ser Willem Darry among them, flee to Braavos in Essos, where a secret pact is signed._

_They stay in Braavos for a while, until the Usurper's assassins find them. Viserys is killed, together with Ser Willem Darry and the other men loyal to her except for Sirys. Dany and Sirys are forced to flee. Daenerys is 5._

_Now she's a queen but without a crown, a throne, a land to rule, or even a place to call home._

_After that, they move from one city to the next, never safe, always looking over their shoulders. Sometimes things are so bad that they have to resort to begging and living on the streets. Some rich merchants and nobles help them because of her name but they always have ulterior motives. Sirys offers his sword for nobles and merchants sometimes to get enough money to take care of her._

_Daenerys' education is not a formal one but Sirys makes sure she learns everything she needs anyway. Everything about Westeros, its costumes, history, Houses, myths and legends. But also mathematics, economics, war strategy. She learns different languages – High Valyrian, Bastard Valyrian, Dothraki, Ghiscari. And she learns how to fight._

_Sirys teaches her himself but he also finds others willing to teach her. Her favourite weapons are double short swords – similar to the one the Unsullied have – one for each hand, though she's perfectly able of wielding a longsword, Westerosi knights' weapon of choice. She's also very good with a bow, smaller than the one the Westerosi soldiers used, and she can use it in the Dothraki way – horseback archery –._

_She's also handy with a dagger and with hand to hand combat._

_Sirys is trying to teach her all that she needs to be both a queen and a commander._

_Daenerys feels like getting the Iron Throne back is her duty, to redeem her family's name. She doesn't want her House to be remembered for the actions of her mad father or reckless brother. She doesn't want House Targaryen to fade into obscurity and with its last members alive forced in exile while a usurper sits on the throne her family had created, ruling a city her family built and a country her family united into one._

_**-With the Dothraki:** _

_It's the year 295 AC. Daenerys and Sirys are staying in Pentos, in Illyrio Mopatis' mansion. Daenerys is 13, Sirys 33. (Canon events with the death of Jon Arryn and Robert Baratheon asking Ned Stark to be Hand of the King starts in the year 298 AC). – Also, Sirys remembers his old life and knows who Daenerys used to be –._

_Daenerys has a dream, of big, scaly wings of different colours and fire and blood. Then the dream changes into cold winds and snow storms and blue eyes, and beings wearing ice armors. The dream ends with a black dragon bathing her in flames. She wakes up feeling strong and fierce._

_She takes a bath then, the water boiling hot but pleasantly warm for her._

_Daenerys knows she and Sirys need an army, both because there's no getting back to Westeros without one and because having an army means power and protection against Robert Baratheon's assassins._

_They can't pay for a sellswords' company. Illyrio could but that would mean becoming even more indebted to him. And anyway, sellswords are not trustworthy, they fight for gold, not loyalty._

_Their options are limited. Illyrio proposes marriage to Khal Drogo, a Dothraki Khal with 40'000 men who has never been defeated in battle. Khal Drogo has seen her during one of his visits to Pentos and he wants her as his khaleesi. (Daenerys, even as young as thirteen and as petite as she is, has the body of a woman grown – she's slender but with a generous bosom, slim waist, round bottom and toned legs. She's beautiful and ethereal – the typical otherworldly beauty of the Valyrians – with gold-silver hair and violet eyes)._

_Illyrio also warns that Khal Drogo is not one to be refused and that, even if Daenerys says no, he would probably take her anyway and burn Pentos in retaliation._

_Daenerys hates listening to Illyrio's suggestion, hates being guilt-tripped into a marriage, but she doesn't see what other choice does she have. Marrying a Khal would also mean gaining power for herself as long she played her cards right, as long as she could get her husband to fall in love with her and get him to do what she wanted. It was a risky gamble but worth it if it paid off. Love could be a powerful weapon, she knew this more than anyone. Too bad she doesn't know anything about seduction._

_Illyrio gifts her three slaves, that he calls handmaidens. Irri, Jhiqui and Doreah. Irri and Jhiqui are Dothraki but Dorea was a pleasure slave from Lys. Daenerys asks Doreah to teach her all she needs to know about pleasing the Khal. (The lessons in sexual education continue during the whole marriage to the Khal and Daenerys becomes as accomplished as a bed slave in the art of lovemaking)._

_There's the wedding to Khal Drogo. Illyrio gifts her three dragon eggs that turned to stone. They're warm to the touch, at least for her. A man shows up, a man from the North of Westeros, called Jorah Mormont, who wants to serve her. Daenerys is not sure she can trust him but she's not in the position to turn possible allies away, especially those that came from her home country._

_During the wedding night, Khal Drogo tries to possess her, to take her from behind like a horse. But she fights him and manages to convince him to try it her way, by looking each other in the eyes (Doreah's first teaching was: 'Love comes in at the eyes.'). She's the one on top, the one who rides him. Drogo seems to like it a lot and he looks at her with a fascinated and intrigued look._

_Their relationship grows in time and though Daenerys can't really say she's in love with him, she learns to care for him. Still, she can't seem to convince him to cross the narrow sea for her, not yet._

_Daenerys soon gets used to life in the Khalasar and gains the respect of many – not because she's a khaleesi but because she can fight, she proved her strength –, though there are always those incapable of it just because she's a woman._

_At one point, while in the Dothraki sea, they encounter another khalasar, led by Khal Ogo, 20'000 strong. The odds are not in Khal Ogo's favour but a fight ensues between the two khalasars anyway. Daenerys asks Drogo to be the one to kill the khal for him. Drogo, who seems incapable of refusing her almost anything at this point, accepts. After a strenuous fight, Daenerys wins. She also gains her first scar, a long, horizontal line just above her elbow, almost like a bracelet, on her right arm. Daenerys has killed a man before, more than once, as Harry Potter, but it's the first time in this life. It's also the first time that she's not sure if the person she has just killed deserves it or not. She knows Khal Ogo is not innocent, but neither is her husband._

_The surviving Dothraki from Khal Ogo's khalasar, about 8'000, named her their khaleesi. It's the first time Daenerys has men of her own who follows her, instead of just men who considers her their khaleesi because she's married to their khal. She has her own khalasar inside her husband's khalasar, though since it's still inside Khal Drogo's khalasar, it becomes a khas with Daenerys as their ko._

_A little while later she finds out that she's pregnant. The strange dreams, of what she soon recognizes as dragons and of the ice armored men, continue. She always goes to touch the dragon eggs after each dream, feeling their warmth. She often keeps them over a brazier, hoping their fire would make them hatch like what had happened with Norberta, but nothing happens. One of her handmaidens catches her picking an egg from the fire with her bare hands and immediately snatches the egg away from her, to keep her from burning herself. Daenerys' hands are untouched though, while in Irri's palms there's the imprint of the eggs._

_In Vaes Dothrak, Daenerys goes through the whole 'eating a horse's heart raw' ritual and her son is prophesized to be the 'Stallion who mounts the World'._

_There's an attempt at Daenerys' life. Someone tries to poison her. Ser Jorah saves her life. Drogo, enraged, swears that they will cross the narrow sea and take the Iron Throne._

_Once they leave Vaes Dothrak, Drogo's men attack a Lhazareen city, Lhazosh (her men follow her orders and don't attack). Drogo wants to sell the slaves to buy ships. Daenerys doesn't approve but she can't convince him to stop – Drogo says that this is their way. Daenerys tries to stop the raping by claiming as many women as she can for herself. One of Drogo's bloodriders goes to Drogo to complain about it. Daenerys refuses to give them back. Drogo is pleased by her fierceness. A fight ensues when the bloodrider says that Drogo became weak, taking orders from a woman. Drogo kills the bloodrider that had challenged him but he gets a wound to the chest._

_The wound is not treated properly and gets infected. Drogo falls from his horse. A lot of the Dothraki leave, though those among Drogo's men most loyal to Daenerys and her own men remain. Jhaqo and Pono, two of Drogo's kos, declare themselves Khals and took 20'000 and 10'000 men respectively._

_The khalasar is left about 10'000 warriors strong plus the slaves. One of Drogo's bloodriders – Haggo – refuses to take orders from her so she challenges him and beats him. He cuts his braid but stays loyal to her after that._

_Daenerys asks Mirri Maz Duur, one of the women she had saved in Lhazosh, to cure Drogo. Both Sirys and Jorah warns her it was too dangerous, that such magic always comes with a price, but she doesn't listen. Though she's not in love with him, she cares deeply for him and doesn't want to lose him. And he's still the father of the child she's expecting._

_The woman betrays her, the payment for Drogo's life being her son's. She miscarries. Drogo is left in a catatonic state. Daenerys smothers him with a pillow to end his suffering. Mirri Maz Duur says the prophecy 'when the sun rises in the west' etc. Daenerys thinks the witch cursed her so she will never able to have children._

_Daenerys chooses three bloodriders: Jhogo, Aggo and Rakharo. She gives Jhogo the silver-handled whip she received as a gift for her wedding, she gives Aggo the dragonbone bow she received as a gift for her wedding and she gives Rakharo the great curving arakh she received as a gift for her wedding._

_She frees the slaves, and while some decide to leave, most stay with her. Then she prepares the funeral fire, putting Drogo's body and three dragon eggs there and tying Mirri Maz Duur to it. She finally figures out what her dreams have been trying to tell her, at least the ones about the dragons. Only death can pay for life._

_She walks into the funeral pyre, ignoring both Sirys and Jorah's protests._

_All night the fire burns. The khalasar waits around the fire._

_At dawn, the fire stops burning and all is left are ashes. Sirys and Jorah come near the pyre, hoping beyond hope to find her still alive when they see her. Naked, but unharmed, sitting with bent knees. And there, perched on her chest and shoulders, there are three baby dragons._

_The entire khalasar kneel to her._

_**-In Qarth:** _

_It's the beginning of the year 296 AC. Daenerys is 14 name days._

_Daenerys names her three dragons Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion, after her husband and her two brothers. She decides to follow the red comet that had appeared in the sky when her dragons were born. The Dothraki are convinced it's a bad omen, but Daenerys believes, since it appeared when her dragons were born, it's pointing in the direction in which she must travel. She leads her people east, through the red waste. She tries to feed the dragons raw meat but they refuse it. She considers the dragons her children._

_They finally arrive in an abandoned city that Daenerys names Vaes Tolorro (City of Bones). While her khalasar recovers through the terrible journey in the desert, Daenerys sends her bloodriders to scout in every direction. Aggo and Rakharo return without good news so Daenerys starts to fortify the city against enemies. When Jhogo returns, three people are with him, citizens from the city of Qarth: the merchant Xaro Xhoan Daxos, the warlock Pyat Pree, and the shadow-binder Quaithe of Asshai. Daenerys gets invited to Qarth, though her khalasar needs to stay outside the walls except for her bloodriders, a few other Dothraki guards (plus Jorah and Sirys) and her handmaidens. Daenerys doesn't like it but she accepts, not seeing what other choice does she have. Her khalasar will receive food and water and everything they want as long as they stay outside._

_Xaro Xhoan Daxos hosted her and her people in his palace. He's the richest person in Qarth._

_In Xaro's lavish home, Daenerys teaches her dragons how to cook and eat their own meat and to breath fire on command. She keeps having dreams about the ice armored beings. And also new dreams, of a beautiful but desolate city whose buildings were made of a strange black stone, with topless towers and sphynxes as decorations and whose streets were flowing with boiling seawater. She had read enough about it in her books to know that she was dreaming of Valyria._

_Xaro proposes marriage to her. Jorah warns her that, according to Qarth tradition, Xaro would be within his rights to ask for her dragons and she would be unable to refuse him. He urges her to take another path, harder maybe, but the right one. Jorah reveals his feelings for her and his belief that the people will both fear and love her, that he has never believed he would meet someone so worthy of ruling._

_Daenerys doesn't acknowledge Jorah's feelings but she agrees that Jorah is right about Xaro. She asks Doreah to use her skills as a lover to find out more about Xaro. Doreah happily agrees._

_Xaro Xhoan Daxos holds a reception in honour of Daenerys. Daenerys meets again Quaithe of Asshai and the warlock Pyat Pree. He demonstrates his magic by replicating himself and invites her to visit his order at the House of the Undying._

_Quaithe talks to her, pronouncing what sounds like a prophecy: 'To go north, you must journey south, to reach the west you must go east. To go forward you must go back and to touch the light you must pass beneath the shadow.'_

_Daenerys also meets Archmaester Marwyn, one of the few maesters who gained a link of Valyrian steel in his chain. Daenerys recognizes the name as one of the people who taught Mirri Maz Duur magic. Daenerys is not particularly happy to meet him at first but Marwyn apologizes to her, telling her that, if he had known how she would have used what he taught her, he would have never taught her in the first place. Marwyn said that he left the Citadel once again to spend the few years he had left traveling the world and unravel his mysteries because he couldn't bear to stay in Westeros just to see Robert Baratheon destroy the realm. He offers to serve her as her Maester if she would accept. Daenerys accepts._

_Jorah once again urges her not to trust Xaro. Sirys agrees with him._

_Xaro suggests that Ser Jorah has feelings for her. Daenerys knows this but says that even if it were true, doesn't mean Jorah is wrong. Xaro shows Daenerys the Valyrian stone vault that guards his fortune and offers to fund her return to Westeros in exchange for her hand in marriage (second time he asks for her hand). Daenerys does not refuse him outright but Xaro understands the rejection all the same._

_Daenerys visits the Pureborn of Qarth, hoping to convince them to help her in her conquest of the Seven Kingdoms. They refuse, however._

_Jorah and Sirys continue in the search for ships (bringing her bloodriders with her), so they would at least be able to leave the city but Daenerys returns to the palace._

_When she returns Xaro invites her to dinner in his private solar. Daenerys accepts, not wanting to displease him further. Xaro offers her spicy wine and delicious food but soon Daenerys starts to feel strange: hot and sweaty and dizzy. Xaro dragged her with some sort of love/fertility potion. Though her mind is muddled, she understands that the warlocks helped him. Xaro rapes her. She can't fight him. She's conscious mentally but her body doesn't respond to her commands. He goes on all night, wanting to put a child in her so she will be forced to marry him. Daenerys thanks the fact that she can't have children so she won't be forced to marry him. She retreats into her mind, imagining all the ways she's going to kill him._

_At dawn, Xaro finally falls asleep. Daenerys leaves the room but what she finds in the part of the palace reserved to her and her men horrifies her. Her Dothraki guards were killed and so were her handmaidens, Irri and Jhiqui. Doreah was stabbed, she's dying but she has enough time to tell Daenerys that the warlocks took her dragons. Jorah, Sirys and her bloodriders arrive in that moment. Daenerys orders them to get her khalasar into the city, seize Xaro and kill every one of his guards who will try to fight for his master. Daenerys executes Xaro herself – she slits his throat with her dagger. She takes the key from his neck and opens the vault. Inside it's full of gold and jewels. At least he wasn't lying about being the richest man in Qarth._

_Daenerys orders her Dothraki to take every precious thing they could find (not only gold and jewels but also spices, fabrics etc) and to put them on the eighty-four merchant ships Xaro owns._ _Among the ships Xaro owns there are thirteen galleasses, military ships developed from large merchant galleys (they were larger, higher but slower than regular galleys, though far deadlier). One of those ships, the fastest one and also Xaro's favourite, was called 'Silken Cloud'. Daenerys chose that as her own personal one and_ _renames it 'Queen Rhaella'.  
_

_She goes to the House of the Undying to take back her dragons. She is magically separated from Jorah and Sirys who came with her. She finds herself in an empty circular room with many doors. She passes many doors and inside every door she sees a vision._

_The first room showed a beautiful, naked woman being ravished by four dwarves._

_The second showed a feast of slaughtered corpses holding cups, spoons, and food, with a dead man with a wolf's head sitting on a throne wearing an iron crown and holding a leg of lamb like a king might hold a sceptre._

_The third showed Daenerys' childhood home with the red door in Braavos and Ser Willem Darry._

_The fourth shows a room with dragon skulls on the wall where an old man sat on a barbed throne, saying to another man below him "Let him be king over charred bones and cooked meat," and "Let him be king of the ashes.”_

_The fifth room, finally, shows a man very much like her uncle Sirys, except that he is taller and has eyes of dark indigo rather than lilac. He is speaking to a woman who is nursing a newborn babe, telling her that the child's name should be Aegon and saying that "What better name for a king?". The woman asks him if he will make a song for the child, and he replies that he has a song and that "He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire.". He appears to look at Dany then, as if seeing her, and then he adds that "There must be one more," and "The dragon has three heads."._

_The sixth showed Viserys Targaryen's death._

_The seventh showed a tall lord with copper-skin and silver-gold hair beneath a banner of a fiery stallion, with a burning city in the background._

_The eighth one showed a dying prince muttering a woman's name with his last breath, rubies flying from his chest._

_Then there were other visions. A blue-eyed king who casts no shadow raises a red sword in his hand._

_A blue flower growing from a chink in a wall of ice, filling the air with sweetness._

_Finally, she reaches the chamber of the Undying. She finds the dragons chained to a pedestal in front of her. She's about to free them when Pyat Pree appears and explains that she and her dragons are the source of his restored magic. He calls her 'mother of dragons' and 'child of three' and 'bride of fire', ‘slayer of lies’, 'daughter of death'. Daenerys is chained as well by Pyat's magic. Daenerys looks at her dragons first and then back at Pyat, not really scared. She utters one single word: 'dracarys'. After a couple of tries her dragons unleash their fiery breath. Pyat is incinerated and both Daenerys and her dragons are free. The House of the Dying is destroyed._

_Daenerys knows she has to leave the city immediately. Her Dothraki have cleaned Xaro's palace of anything valuable. Some of Xaro's slaves decides to come with her so Daenerys frees them. (Archmaester Marwyn comes with her as well, saying that she should visit Asshai – there's dragonlore there that can help her with her dragons and magic to learn if she's so inclined – and that he could be her guide there)._

_They set sail. Jorah wants to convince her to go to Astapor to buy the Unsullied, saying that her dragons are still small and an army of ten thousand men won't be enough to conquer the Seven Kingdoms. Daenerys agrees that she needs a larger army and that they will reach Astapor eventually but she needs to visit other places first._

_**-In Valyria:** _

_It's half-way through the year 296 AC._

_Daenerys says that she wants to visit Valyria. Jorah and Sirys protest but she's determined. Archmaester Marwyn says that he's heard of a safe way to reach it but he doesn't know if it's true because he's never been there. Daenerys says that it's worth the risk. She feels like there's something she has to find there. Her dreams have been trying to tell her something._

_Her fleet reaches the coasts of Valyria, far enough away to be safe, but only Daenerys and Sirys go to shore. They're covered from head to feet as a protection against the stone men. Her dragons are big enough to fly now._

_They walked through the dense vegetation, the air hot and humid, making it difficult to breath. They don't encounter stone men on the way. Seems Archmaester Marwyn's info was correct. They reach the ruined city. Most of the buildings are completely destroyed, some still smoking, and everything is hot to the touch. Both Sirys and Daenerys cover their nose and mouth to protect themselves from the smoke. Sirys asks her what she's looking for but Daenerys doesn't know._

_After some wandering, she's drawn to a specific palace, in the centre of the city. It's a high tower without a top. It looks almost intact if compared to the rest of the buildings. It has two high double doors, three times higher than her. Inside there's only a small circular room with black walls and a single, small, rectangular, polished stone table with a glass candle on it. Daenerys is curious about the glass candle, having heard of it from the warlocks who said that the glass candles are lit because of her and her dragons. She picks it up and the candle lights up. She gives the candle to Sirys but in his hands the candle is extinguished. Daenerys puts it in her bag then. They are about to leave when Daenerys feels something, like a shiver going down her spine. There's something there, something hidden._

_Daenerys approaches the wall on her left. It doesn't look different from the rest of the room but it feels different. Daenerys remembered how Dumbledore had opened the passage in the cave where Voldemort had hidden the horcrux. She wonders if a blood offer would reveal whatever is hidden there._

_She cuts her hand with her dagger and put it on the wall – the wall opens. Daenerys and Sirys descended a long stone staircase in the dark for what feels like forever until they reach a cavernous room filled with rough gems, shelves with books but especially what looks like armours and weapons made in valyrian steel – there are even chainmails that almost look like they are made of fabric instead of metal because of how light and thin they are (imagine the mithril chainmails in Lord of the Rings). One such weapon is a beautiful composite recurve bow – it was almost completely black, made of Nightwood*1 and she was willing to bet the sinews, bones and horns used as materials for it belonged to a black dragon –. The arrows are made of nightwood as well while its tips are made with Valyrian steel._

_Among the books there's a dark red, leather-bound one that has inside the secret to produce valyrian steel._

_Sirys and Daenerys return to the ships to call the others to help them empty the vault. They leave Valyria after that but Daenerys swears that she will return._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1 *This darkly-colored, rare magic wood is harder than normal wood but very light in weight. Any wooden or mostly wooden item (such as an arrow, or a spear) made from Nightwood is considered a masterwork item and weighs only half as much as a normal wooden item of that type. Nightwood trees are easily identified by their iron-grey bark and oak-like leaves. The heart-wood from this tree is a dark, charcoal grey.
> 
> Nightwood trees are nearly as unbreakable as Ironwood but much lighter.
> 
> Nightwood is a variety of hardwood often prized for its springiness and flexibility. When aged and properly sealed and stained, the wood is pitch black with a glossy finish.
> 
> (Taken directly from Chronicles of Arn wiki/Blackwood_(Tree) /Though I changed the name Blackwood to Nightwood because turns out there's a wood mentioned in ASOIF that is called Nightwood/ – since Weirwood Trees are a thing in the Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire Universe, let's just say that other magical trees exist as well and the Nightwood Tree is one of them but that it existed only in the Valyrian Peninsula).


	2. Summary Part 2

" _ **Why do the gods make kings and queens, if not to protect the ones who can't protect themselves?"**_

_**Daenerys III, A Storm of Swords, Chapter 27** _

* * *

 

_**-In Astapor:** _

_It's the end of the year 296 AC. After leaving Valyria, Daenerys decides to follow Jorah's advice and go to Astapor. The dragons are now as big as dogs. They can catch fish for themselves and they can cook their meat but they are not big enough to use in war._

_Her Dothraki khalasar remain on the ships (Daenerys is surprised how well they took to being on ships once they got used to it). The only men to accompany her are her bloodriders, Jorah and Sirys._

_In Astapor, they walk along a sea wall called 'Walk of Punishment'. Here, any slave who shows insubordination is strapped to a cross and left to die out in public, as a warning to all other slaves. She offers a condemned man water, but he refuses to drink, saying that he just wants to die. Daenerys would like to grant him mercy but she doesn't want to butcher negotiations with the slavers before they even begin. Jorah advises her to purchase the Unsullied who will follow her orders without questions and since they're trained eunuchs they won't let personal desires or urges dictate their actions (no rape, no killing except for those that Daenerys will order etc.) Sirys doesn't agree with Jorah, saying that during the battle of the Trident the army followed his nephew Rhaegar because they believed in him, because they loved him and not because they had been bought. Jorah replied that 'Rhaegar fought valiantly, Rhaegar fought nobly, Rhaegar died'._

_Daenerys listens to both her advisors and starts to devise a plan of her own._

_Daenerys and her retinue visit the Plaza of Pride where the rich slaver owner Kraznys mo Nakloz informs Daenerys about the Unsullied's capabilities. Daenerys pretends she cannot understand High Valyrian. Kraznys's scribe Missandei translate his rude and offensive remarks into respectful statements. Missandei is more of less of the same age with Daenerys if not a little younger._

_Kraznys explains that the Unsullied were trained for battle from the age of five, and that only one in four recruits survived the training. He also demonstrates that the Unsullied do not fear pain or death by slicing off the nipple of one soldier, much to Daenerys's disgust. This soldier not only shows no sign of pain but even thanks his master for the opportunity to serve him. Daenerys also learns that the Unsullied are trained not to show mercy or weakness by killing a newborn slave child in front of its mother at the end of their training._

_Daenerys says that she wants all the Unsullied – the eight thousand six hundred plus the five thousand boys still in training_ _–_ _in exchange for everything she owns – the ships, the valyrian steel weapons and armours, the gold and gems. Kraznys senses Daenerys' (fake) desperation and asks for her dragons. Daenerys says that she will give him one dragon, the largest one, Drogon. Both Jorah and Sirys protests but Daenerys silences them with one look. She also asks for Missandei as a gift._

_On their way back to the ships, Daenerys warns both Sirys and Jorah, though she cares deeply for both of them and she values their advices, to never question her in front of strangers again because they undermine her this way. Then she frees Missandei and says to her that she's free to go if she wants, that she can give her gold and a ship and she can return to her homeland if she prefers (she speaks to her in Valyrian). Missandei is impressed by Daenerys and she decides to stay with Dany._

_That night Daenerys is visited by Quaithe once again who urges her to go to Asshai._

_On the day of the exchange, the slave masters and Kraznys, along with the Unsullied warriors (all 13'600 of them), meet with Daenerys to complete the deal. Daenerys hands the chained Drogon to Kraznys. Kraznys then gives her the golden whip, the symbol of ownership over the Unsullied. After finalizing the transaction, Daenerys tests her new powers by ordering the Unsullied, in Valyrian, to march forward and then halt. This shocks everyone including Jorah (but not Sirys or Missandei), who did not know that she spoke Valyrian._

_Kraznys then complains that Drogon is not obeying his commands, to which Daenerys angrily retorts Drogon does not obey him because he is not a slave ('Zaldrīzes buzdari iksos daor'); Kraznys is both stunned to learn she speaks fluent Valyrian, and horrified to realize Daenerys understood his derogatory comments and insults about her the whole time, merely feigning ignorance to lull the Astapori into a false sense of security. She then orders the Unsullied to kill all the slave masters (no one below the age of sixteen) and free all the slaves in Astapor, but to hurt no innocent people. When a panicking Kraznys desperately shouts for someone to kill her, Daenerys orders Drogon to burn Kraznys alive._

_With the Unsullied under her command, Daenerys sacks Astapor with little resistance. Once it is done, she addresses all of her Unsullied warriors and tells them they are now free. She also gives them the option of leaving unharmed or fighting under her command as free men. At first, the Unsullied remain quiet, not knowing what to do with their newfound freedom, however, one Unsullied soldier begins to beat his spear against the ground, signifying his allegiance to her. The rest of the Unsullied follow suit shortly thereafter._

_Daenerys ordered the Unsullied to elect a commander from their own ranks. The officers ultimately choose Grey Worm, who like all Unsullied, was given the name of a type of vermin. When Daenerys instructed the Unsullied to go back to their own names or pick new ones they like, Grey Worm elected to keep his, as it was the name he had when Daenerys Stormborn set him free._

_Daenerys decides to stay in the city to make sure the situation is stabilized. She takes residence in the highest pyramid in the city._

_Everything that belonged to the slave masters is given to the now free slaves._

_She establishes laws and punishments fitting the crime, asking advise from others who are learned in legal matters. She establishes a sort of tribunal (she decides to use one of the fighting pits in the city as a court room – though it needs to be modified first) that will decide on the punishment with a majority vote (Daenerys's vote doesn't count more than the others, though she's the one leading the proceedings)._

_She converts one of the pyramids in the city into a prison. The death punishment is dole out usually only in the case of murder, unless the murder was somehow justified like in case of self-defense. Self-defense becomes legal, no matter if it's someone from the lower class killing someone from the higher class because they were trying to defend themselves (the law is equal for all and all that). Rape and sexual violence are punished with castration and years in prison and forced, unpaid, labour (if the act is against children, they spend their whole life in prison and working until they can't work anymore). Most other crimes, in fact, are punished with prison years and forced labour (how many years depending on the gravity of the crime) – they spend their days (from dawn till dusk) working (as builders, farming, wherever there's the need) and then they return to the prison at night (they get only one day off per week, a day of leisure in which they can do what they want (of course nothing illegal), though they are encouraged to study and better themselves); they are given food, a cot and blankets to sleep and medical care if they need it; –. This way they can still be useful to society and gets punished at the same time._

_She also implements laws about domestic abuse. Husbands are not allowed to beat their wives (or vice versa) and the discipline of the children doesn't have to mean beat them. Also, if a wife refuses to have sex with her husband and the husband tries to force himself on her, that's considered rape and it's punished by law._

_Moreover, women can't be sold off to be married. They must be free to choose who they want to marry or not._

_She changes the symbols on the silver coins produced in Astapor – the silver marks depicted the harpy, the symbol of slavery – and changed it into a dragon._

_She orders Sirys and Jorah to start training, with the help of the Unsullied and Dothraki, a number of freed slaves (about six thousands) that would function as a city watch, to maintain order in the city and protect it in case of attack. She also forms a council that would rule the city once she would leave and that for now will function as her own Small Council (like in Westeros)._

_She uses yet another pyramid as a sort of school to teach everyone in the city to read, write and count(the teachers would be paid a salary, of course) and another pyramid as a sort of hospital where the citizens could get cured for free (the healers would be, of course, paid a salary). She establishes taxes based on income (30% of their income for the rich, 15% for the middle class and 5% for the poor). The rich families must have one accountant per family who takes care of bookkeeping while middle class and poor must have one person in their family who can count and take care of financial matters (this way once the tax collectors come, the people can be sure that they're paying the right amount they're due). That's where the education for everyone will be useful._

_Some ex-slaves who used to be fieldhands for the Masters take over the fields just outside the city walls to cultivate or farm. The animals kept as livestock were: sheep, goats, cows, oxen, horses, water buffalos, mules, donkeys, camels, addaxes, bison, collared peccaries, deer, elands, rabbits and pigs; the animals kepts as poultry were: chickens, ducks, emus, gooses, peacocks, ostriches, partridges, pigeons, quails, turkeys, guineafowls and pheasants. The meat of all these animals could be eaten. Chickens, ducks, gooses, ostriches, partridges and quails laid eggs. Camels, horses, donkeys and mules were pack animals. Also, sheep, cows, goats, camels, donkeys, elands, horses, water buffalo and oxen produced milk that would be made into cheese and butter. With the hides of chickens, emus, ostriches, sheep, cows, goats, addax, bison, deer, elands, pigs and rabbits (also fur), it would also be possible to produce leather that could be sold as well. Moreover chickens, ducks, gooses, peacocks, ostriches, partridges, pigeons, quails and turkeys could be plucked of their feathers and those feathers could be used to produce clothes. From the carcass of the emu, the fat could be harvested and turned into oil which has many properties: medicinal uses (as anti-inflammatory and to speed up the healing process of wounds), as a natural sunscreen, moisturizer and bug repellant. Pigeons could be trained into deliver messages like ravens in Westeros. Sheep and goats produce wool (in particular angora goats which produced mohair) that could be sold and sheep's skin was also used to create parchment for books. Angora rabbits as well produced a very luxurious fabric, the Angora wool._

_Her Dothraki increase the horse breeding they usually did to be able to sell the horses to others as well and the horses the Dothraki bred were superior to any other type of horses in the east. She was proud of her Dothraki for that, since they were used to just take whatever they wanted and they didn't really believe in trade. Not until her at least. They had never even been on a ship before, too afraid of the 'poisonous water' but they did for her, a woman. It showed that they could evolve and adapt, that they weren't savages but simply people who could become better than they were but still maintain their culture intact – once the more violent aspects of it were eliminated._

_Some Dothraki started to work the fields as well and to farm, which was a huge accomplishment for them._

_Daenerys also gives the order to build both a water system and a sewer system (with paid engineers and a great number of workers), inspired by the Ancient Romans' water supply system (and the Cloaca Maxima for the sewer system); the water system would bring the water from any water source in the near vicinity, but especially the Worm River since it was the closest, to the city and the fields around it. To distribute the water inside the city, a great number of fountains would be built for public use, fulleries as well – places where people were employed to wash clothes –, cisterns as well to store water in case of necessity, and public baths as well. The sewage system would connect to every building in the city (therefore every house would have a private latrine) and the wastes would be brought through the sewers into the sea. That would both largely decrease the risks of diseases due to poor hygiene and the problem of the terrible smell like in King's Landing could be avoided (Sirys had often complained of how much the capital smelled).  
_

_All of this would take a few years to be completed but it would be worth it. She also had plans to create new connections starting from the Astapor water system that would bring the water to Yunkai and Meereen as well once she would conquer those as well (and she would of course give the order to build sewer systems there as well)._

_The recipe for the concrete they use to build these new buildings – the city walls as well which were increased in height and the more vulnerable parts replaced or fixed – comes from Valyria and ironically, it's similar to the concrete the Ancient Romans used since volcanic ash was incorporated into the mix. This particular concrete was waterproof (even against sea water) and very durable._

_Various vegetables, legumes, tubers and grain crops are planted which would yield even with the semi-arid climate of the region: Buckwheat, Barley, Maize (both sweet and seed), Pearl Millet, Sorghum, Rye, Wheat, Quinoa, Beans, Black Sesame, Turnip, Rhubarb, Chard, Asparagus, Sweet Potato, Potato, Sunroot, Green Artichoke, Squash, Cantaloupe, Watermelon, Eggplant, Mustard Greens, Okra, Chickpea, Cowpea, Yacon, Amaranth, Tomato, Purslane, Spinach, Onion, Garlic, Sweet Peppers, Hot Peppers, Rocket, Cabbage, Endive, Leek, Butterhead Lettuce, Seminole Pumpkin, Tomatillo, Jicama, Lemon Cucumber, Cassava, Parsnip, Carrot, Beetroot, Pigeon Pea and White Yam. Various plants, herbs and flowers (most of them are both for culinary uses and medicinal uses): Licorice, Basil, Chamomile, Hyssop, Aloe Vera, Cumin, Coriander, Mullein, Borage, Echinacea, Stevia, Sage, Rosemary, Lavender, Calendula, Thyme, Dandelion, Savory, Wormwood, Laurel, True Indigo (for the extraction of the indigo dye), Cat Thyme, Catmint, Costmary, Fennel, Germander, White Horehound, Lemon Balm, Marjoram, Scented Lippia, Oregano, Cotton Lavender, Yarrow, Garlic Chives, Chives, Lovage, Southernwood, Wood Betony, Parsley, Feverfew, Goldenrod, Milk Thistle, Yellow Dock, Chicory, Purslane, Ginger, Common Sunflower, Red Clover, Saffron Plum, Saffron Crocus, Khat, Blue Agave and Comfrey. And various trees (some are fruit trees, others are for timber and/or forage, or for other purposes): Dragon fruit, Saguaro, Red Date, Kei Apple, Prickly Pear Cactus, Manila Tamarind, Big Num-num, Pomegranate, Grapefruit, Jelly Palm, Silverberry, Loquat, Macadamia, Hazelnut, Almond, Pistachio, Olive, Persimmon, Pineapple Guava, Silkworm Thorn, Fig, Wolfberry, Red Mulberry, Strawberry Tree, Pepper Tree, Cherry Guava, Grapes, Clove Tree, Common Guava, Tamarind, Sea Lemon, Seagrape, Cocoplum, Karanda, Date Palm, Mango, Moringa (Ben oil tree), Sherbet Berry, Sand Pear, Peach, Apple, Pear, Lemon, Apricot, Cherry, Hollyleaf Cherry, Carob, Kinnip, Stone Apple, Java Plum, Guama, Juniper, Mesquite, Plantain, Cashew, Coconut Palm, Pineapple, Chickasaw Plum, Flowering Quince, Blackberry, Bayberry, Key Lime, White Sapote, Marula, Canistel, Ambarella, Karanda, Cinnamon Tree, Ber, Pigeon Plum, Naseberry, Monkey Orange, Black Locust, Argan, Lucerne, Quickstick, Honey Locust, Sycamore, Oak (cork oaks one of the varieties, which was the primary source of cork and kermes oak another variety, which is the food of choice for the Kermes scale insect, from which the crimson dye is obtained - Silks and wools dyed with Kermes red were extremely valuable and could be sold at a very high price), Rubber Tree (whose latex was, of course, used to produce rubber), Shea Tree, Frangrant Nutmeg, Owala Tree, Chaya, Leedtree, Acacia, Mimosa Tree, Incense Cedar, Ponderosa Pine, Red Maple (which could be used to produce maple syrup), Hawthorne, Maidenhair Tree, Shagbark Hickory, Water Elm, Sumac, Crapemyrtle, Leyland Cypress, Mugo Pine, Redbud, Red Cedar, Hackberry, Hardy Catalpa, Cotton, Flax and Nightwood (whose seed she found in Valyria). Some is used exclusively to feed the population, but just as much is traded.  
_

_Spices in particular, which were really appreciated in Essos (but some from the free cities made their way to Westeros as well), could be sold at a really high price like saffron, which was the most expensive spice in the world, but also cinnamon, black pepper, ginger, cloves, cardamom, nutmeg and mace._

_Trade deals are reached with Braavos, the only one of the Free Cities that would still trade with them, and with the small but rich pastoral Kingdom of Omber in the North of Essos. Later trade agreements are also reached with the Yi-Ti empire, the island of Leng, Great Moraq, Lesser Moraq, Vahar, the Isle of Elephants, Marahai and the Summer Isles._

_They also trade in copper whose mines are all over Slaver's Bay. Craftsmen are paid for their work and they create various objects from copper, like pots, cutlery, plates and even jewels. Less abudant than copper but still present are mines of iron, zinc and tin. Having both tin and copper meant producing bronze as well, that though wasn't as sought after as iron, it was still in high demand. Also, by mixing copper and zinc together brass could be produced as well, which was mostly used for the construction of musical instruments._

_Daenerys wanted to find a type of grape which would produce a wine good enough to be sold but it wasn't so easy. The grapes which grew in Slaver's Bay weren't really of a great quality. They were sweet enough to eat but not to produce a good wine. Therefore, she decided, for now, to concentrate on other alcoholic bevarages._

_Daenerys wanted to introduce some liquors which weren't known in this world: Vodka (which she will call Moonwine), Gin (which she will call Berrywine), Absinthe (which she will call Greenfyre) and Tequila (which she will call Sunwine). After all, she had all the ingredients needed for it. To produce tequila, they had the blue agave. And for gin, vodka and absinthe, all they needed was a grain (preferably wheat, barley or rye - or even potatoes for the vodka) and the botanicals (Juniper berries for the Gin and Wormwood, Fennel and Hyssop instead of normal Anise for the Absinthe). They just needed to experiment a bit until they would find the right way to produce them so they could introduce them to the market. Selling liquors was always a simple way to make profit. Furthermore, the great thing about these liquors was that they needed very little aging or sometimes none at all. Therefore they could be sold almost as soon as they were made._

_Another alcoholic beverage Daenerys decided to sell, in a few years time, was mead. While mead was known in Westeros, it wasn't very widespread in Essos, and the honey usually used to produce mead was from flowers. But since they had the opportunity to grow Black Locusts, they would be able to start the cultivation of bees and produce acacia honey. Mead made from Acacia honey would definitely be different from the usual mead and, hopefully, it would sell well._

_After some experiment with fermenting wheat they are also able to produce a type of ale that was good enough to be sold.  
_

_And talking about wheat, she wants to introduce the idea of noodles and of the pasta machine. There were many good things about noodles: the fact that, once dried, they could be stored for a long period of time, they were easy to cook and they could be flavoured in very many different ways (and they had, of course, a very high nutritive value)._

_But producing noodles by hand was a rather long and tiring process. And that's when the idea of the pasta machine came in, the model the one Angelo Vitantonio designed._

_Though there are salt mines around Astapor, Daenerys decides to not make use of them yet and instead using another method to produce it. Salt was a very useful commodity since it could be used to preserve food. There was always demand for it and it could be sold at a rather high price. Daenerys makes use of her dragons' fire to evaporate sea water and therefore obtain the salt. There was more than one advantage at producing salt that way. First, sea water was an almost endless resource or at least, it was easier to exhaust a salt mine of their resources than the sea. Second, people would still be employed but the risks for their health were lesser than working on mines. Third, it was a much quicker process thanks to her dragons and the salt obtained was much more. That means that the Astapori both have plenty of salt for themselves and more than enough to be sold as well._

_They also start to plant weeping mulberry trees, to start the silkworms' cultivation. In about a year time the trees would be grown enough that the leaves could be used as food for the silkworms. They would, therefore, be able to produce silk and therefore even lace, satin, velvet, brocade and damask from it and sell those fabrics produced, since they could be sold at a very high price. Cotton, like wool, could be used as well to produce fabrics to sell, just like flax, from whose plant they could produce linen - which could be used to produce, beside clothing, ropes and canvases for ships because it was stronger than cotton, and cotton could be used to produce less expensive forms of lace, satin, velvet, brocade and damask._

_To increase the production of fabrics and clothes, she has made projects for and has then built carding machines and spinning mules and she has opened an actual textile manufactory. (The history lessons in her muggle school were really paying off now)._

_Another introduction she has made is the sewing machine, inspired by Barthélemy Thimonnier's model._

_This way not only producing fabrics became a much quicker and easier process but also turning the fabrics into clothes._

_Cotton could also be used to produce paper. And that's when she has the idea of introducing the printing press (she hopes Gutenberg will forgive her for stealing his idea). Right now, books were extremely expensive and only those from the higher classes could afford them. It was one of the reasons why often only the higher classes were literate. She intends to change that. Having a sort of school was the first step, the second was to make books available for all. And the printing press was perfect for it._

_Maybe in the future she can also have a public library built, once enough copies of books will be made available._

_New ships are built to add to the already rather big fleet belonging to the masters. Some ships would serve as trading ships and others as war ships in case of an attack._

_She also opens an orphanage but makes sure the children have everything they need – food, clothes, an education – they are also taught a trade – but especially affection. Even the pleasure houses stay open but the clients that visit the pleasure houses pay an extra (a sort of entrance fee) beside the cost for the performance itself._

_The prostitutes get paid for their work fully – no more percentage for the madam or the owner – and it's the city itself that owns the pleasure houses, whose profit derives from the cumulative sum of that extra fee every month. There's a small group of soldiers for every pleasure house (they get paid a stipend, like all the soldiers in the city do) who makes sure the prostitutes are treated well by their clients (the clients get punished by law if they mistreat a prostitute). Also, the prostitutes are free to leave at any point, taking with them the money they earned. There’s also a minor age the prostitutes must have (17), none younger than that._

_Daenerys thanks Sirys for giving her the education necessary to know what to do now that she had a city to rule. However, it was not only Sirys' teachings that she was making use of when implementing all the changes she had planned. When it came to agricultural matters, she could thank Aunt Petunia for that. Since she was five, in fact, Petunia had given her the task to take care of her kitchen garden in the back of the house. It soon became her respite from the miserable life that she led at the Dursleys and she soon learnt to love taking care of the vegetables and fruit trees present there. Once she grew old enough to read, she would spend hours at the library searching for books about horticulture. The fact that she had photographic memory helped in assimilate all this information._

_Those were not the only books she would devour, however. She had always loved history, especially learning about inventions. As much as she had loved to find out she had magic when she was eleven, she didn't lose that wonderment that she had always felt when she found out how certain appliances that muggles used had been invented. She could certainly understand Arthur Weasley's fascination with muggle technology._

_She had also certainly kept her passion for history during her second childhood in this world, especially when most of what she studied concerned her family, House Targaryen, or the Valyrians, which were her ancestors as well. It was impossible not to get interested in it when it involved her so closely._

_After more than six moons in Astapor, Daenerys receives a petitioner, a certain Lysandro Rogare, a young man of 25 namedays of Valyrian descendance (though he lacks the silver hair of the Valyrians, he has instead light golden hair), named after Lysandro the Magnificent (he’s descended from Moredo Rogare, Lysandro the Magnificent’s second son, and from him, passing from father to son, he inherited the Valyrian Steel sword Truth). Lysandro is the last descendant of House Rogare, a noble House from Lys, still prominent in the city, but that had once important ties with the Seven Kingdoms and, in particular, House Targaryen and House Martell (Larra Rogare married to King Viserys II – one of the sons of Rhaenyra Targaryen – and her uncle Drazenko married Aliandra Martell, the ruling Princess of Dorne)._

_Lysandro wants Daenerys’ help to re-establish the Rogare Bank (he wants Daenerys to be his first investor, hoping others after her will come) and take control of Lys once again, since it once belonged to his family (or rather, the Rogare family had taken control of Lys using the relation with Westeros, due to the marriage with Viserys, to become more powerful). He appeals to their shared kinship – as distant as it is – and the promise that, if he will become the First Magister of Lys, he will abolish slavery, Lys will establish trade deals with Astapor (and Yunkai and Meereen later on) and, if the Rogare Bank will return to be more powerful than the Iron Bank of Braavos like it had been once, once Daenerys takes back the Seven Kingdoms, the Rogare Bank will be the only bank to finance Westeros – Braavos is against slavery but the Iron Bank profits from the slave trade all the same. Daenerys accepts, though she wants 30% shares of the profit for the next fifteen years. That will give her back the gold she will spend to finance the bank plus interests. Lysandro accepts, though a little reluctantly. Daenerys promises him that, if he betrays his word, she will burn him alive. Lysandro said that he always keeps his word and that he will never think of betraying the Mother of Dragons anyway, that anyone who does is a fool._

_After about one year in the city (it's the end of 297 A.C.), the situation is stable and the population has doubled in size since she first arrived, (a lot of people from the Astapor region moved inside the city once they learnt how the city population was flourishing under Daenerys' rule – nobody was without a job, nobody was starving and everyone was free, the city was richer than ever) they were probably close to 500'000 people living there now._

_Daenerys decides that it's finally time to travel to Asshai, not only because she's curious about why Quaithe wants her to go there but also because the secret to produce Valyrian steel is both dragonfire and melted dragonglass mixed with normal iron (only dragonfire can reach the temperature necessary to melt the dragonglass and blend it with the iron) – plus a blood offer mixed with the alloy, but the blood must be Valyrian blood – and Asshai is famous for trading dragonglass. She intends to open a new trade route with the Shadow city._

_She leaves Astapor with Archmaester Marwyn and her bloodriders. Everyone else, the dragons included (who are now bigger than horses) remain in Astapor. She plans on returning in a few months' time._

_**-In Asshai:** _

_Daenerys and Archmaester Marwyn reach Asshai. The Archmaester is her guide into the city since he's been there before. Daenerys presents herself as the new ruler of Astapor and wants to make a trade deal with the Asshai council that rules the city. One of these people is the shadowbinder, Red Priestess Kinvara. Kinvara says to Daenerys that the Lord of Light showed her Daenerys birthing the dragons, her arrival into Asshai and her fight against slavery. She also says that "Daenerys Stormborn is the one who was promised. From the fire she was reborn to remake the world... Her dragons are fire made flesh, a gift from the Lord of Light... Daenerys has been sent to lead the people against the darkness in this war and in the great war still to come." Thanks to her words, the rest of the Council is convinced in trading with Astapor (and eventually Yunkai and Meereen as well) at a very reasonable price._

_Daenerys is curious about Kinvara's words and asks her what she means. Kinvara explains to her about the Others and the prophecy of the Prince that was Promised (Daenerys remembers the vision of Rhaegar talking about his son Aegon and referring to him as the Prince that was Promised). Daenerys is a little skeptical but she remembers her dreams of the ice armoured beings._

_Kinvara also says that she senses magic in Daenerys and she offers to teach her. Daenerys is unsure because she knows the reputation the shadowbinders have and she also remembers how Mirri Maz Duur used her magic to kill her child while still in the womb. This type of magic is dark, based on blood sacrifices. Kinvara asks if it wasn't fire and blood that gave her dragons and Daenerys nods, realizing that it depends on how you use this type of magic. Kinvara reassures her though that not all magic is based on blood sacrifices and that she has much to teach her if only Daenerys would be willing to learn. Daenerys finally accepts._

_Kinvara leaves Asshai and sails with Daenerys and Archmaester Marwyn to Astapor._

_Before returning to Astapor though, Daenerys decides to stop in Valyria once again._

_- **In Valyria again**_

_Daenerys returns to Valyria. She finds more treasures there, gold, gems, more valyrian steel armours and weapons, more books about magic. Also seeds of plants that are extinct anywhere else. But, most of all, she finds dragon eggs - seven intact, perfect dragon eggs. Kinvara warns her that their time to hatch hasn't come yet, to not try to hatch them because it won't work, but it will one day._

_She decides that she wants to rebuild Valyria, no matter how long it would take. Valyria will rise again, a new city to replace the ruins of the last one. She just needs magic to make the place habitable again. And thanks to both Kinvara and the magical books she has found in Valyria, she knows she will succeed.  
_

_**-Back in Astapor** _

_Daenerys returns to Astapor._

_They start the production of Valyrian steel and after some trial and error, they finally manage it. They can't produce it in big quantities (and therefore, at least for now, they're unable to sell it) since the blood they need for it can only be taken from her and Sirys but, in addition to the many pieces they had found in Valyria, they have enough to armor her own armies (both Unsullied and Dothraki) plus the soldiers in the city. Once that was done, they would be able to sell some. Valyrian steel was very expensive because it was so rare, so she couldn't sell too many pieces at once anyway because, otherwise, the price would inevitably lower._

_Daenerys, for herself, has ordered some of the Valyrian steel she had found in Valyria to be reforged so to replace the blades of the double swords she uses and the dagger's from normal steel to Valyrian steel. Both the swords and the dagger have dragon hilts. (The dragon must have three heads and all that)._

_She trains with them and her bow every day from dawn to when the sun is high in the sky. She spars against Sirys, Jorah, all her tree bloodriders and Grey Worm. All have different fighting styles so she learns a lot by training with them._

_The dragons, in the meantime, her children are almost big enough to ride now._

_Her dragons' age and dimensions also mean that their fire is hotter than any normal fire. That gives her the idea of putting her dragons to work, so to speak (though she already has her dragons producing salt). They were surrounded by sand and sand plus fire at a very high temperature means the possibility of creating glass. Her idea works and the glass her dragons produce – with help from human hands to shape it of course – is even clearer than the one they sold in Myr. That opens new trade possibilities for the city but it also means that they could build glasshouses at a very minimum cost since they are the ones producing the glass needed for it._

_The problem with the semi-arid climate of the region was the scarcity of water. The water system she was building would solve this problem for the most part but the great thing about glasshouses was the fact that you can control the temperature and humidity inside. If the temperature would rise too much, it could be brought down with evaporated water and in the days where there was no sun, the glass would keep the environment warmth, just like it would be kept warmth if the temperature would drop too much at night as it happened sometimes. Also, the type of soil itself could be controlled, by buying different types of soils from other regions. This way they can plant seeds that wouldn't otherwise be able to grow in Slaver's Bay in normal conditions._

_Glass could also be used to produce bottles and jars. The bottles could be used to store beverages and the jars (boling them first to sterilize them) to store and preserve food._

_Moreover, by having glass, she could introduce the concept of oil lamps (particularly the Argand lamp), which was the next best thing without electricity to produce light, much better than normal candles (they could easily use olive oil as fuel)._

_Producing glass objects brings forth in her mind that science experiment she had seen during her first physics class in her last year of elementary school in her old world. Her teacher, to impress his pupils and make them interested in physics, had showed them how to produce ice simply by using water, a bell jar and a vacuum pump. She couldn't help but wonder if she could do the same. Salt was certainly useful to preserve food but it wasn't ice. In Essos the temperature was always so high that it didn't occur naturally. But maybe she could produce it herself, both for her city and to sell as well? It wouldn't be long before the water system would work and then, they would have all the water they needed. Building a vacuum pump like the ones in the 1800's woudn't be a problem as well. It wasn't anything too complicated, they would just need to build a very big one. The ice would be stored in icehouses, like the Romans used to do. And, maybe, by making ice, she could also produce ice-cream - building an ice-cream machine like Agnes Marshall’s. The ice and the ice-cream could be sold as well, which would bring another source of income and work both for the city._

_Also, thanks to the water system, they would be able to plant coffee plants and cocoa trees, to produce coffee and chocolate respectively, and therefore introduce them both to the market, together with vanilla (which had been in her old world the most expensive spice in the world after saffron). She also decides to take the history of her old world as an example and open coffeehouses - that would sell hot chocolate as well -, in which people could come and drink coffee and hot chocolate, eat baked sweets, chat and read together (once enough books would be printed with the printing machine). It would give new jobs to some and become a gathering point for others in which they could relax and take a break for their ordinary days._

_Daenerys knows that the other slaver cities are just waiting for a chance to attack, that they didn't just forget the 'slight' against them. The only reason they left Astapor alone until now is because they know they can't win, not against her, her armies and dragons. But she also knows that the moment she leaves the city, they would try to take it back. That's why she's making sure they have all they need to survive even without her help._

_They produce food for themselves and even in case of a siege, they would last years and years. In fact, a siege against Astapor would result in the armies outside the gates starving before the people inside the city would._

_Moreover, they have enough men to protect the city in case of a land attack and enough ships in case of a sea attack._

_Astapor becomes even richer than it was before with the slave trade and that encourages other free cities to trade with it, like Pentos, Norvos, Qohor and Lorath. It's a step in the right direction and Daenerys decides that it's time to leave Astapor and free Yunkai and Meeren as well._

_Sirys and Jorah try to convince her to leave Essos and attack Westeros now._

_Daenerys doesn't agree, saying that she can't leave until all the slaves in Essos would be freed. She hopes that, by conquering Yunkai and Meereen after Astapor, she would encourage the slaves in the free cities to rebel against their masters as well. But first she has to succeed in stopping the slave trade whose heart was in Slaver's bay and install a new government, just like she did in Astapor._

_Thanks to the dragonlore books she had found in Valyria and some books she had bought in Asshai, she's able to deepen her bond with her dragons. Drogon is the more rebellious one but he's also the one Daenerys has the strongest bond with. She just knows he will be the one she'll ride. She had dreamed about it and her dreams come true._

_Kinvara starts to teach her magic, and she also learns some spells from Valyria (from the books she had found there). It's different from the magic she's used to. Some forms of magic are indeed addictive and destructive (a lot like the Dark Magic of her old world) but, like Kinvara had said, not all forms of magic were like that._

_She learns to summon the elements (though her favourite is, of course, fire). And she learns to control the weather, at least a little. She can summon winds and lightning, make rain and even snow fall, make the air tropical hot or freezing cold. Though all of this takes a lot out of her and she can keep it up only for short period of times a day._

_There're some forms of magic she's more comfortable with like potions (ironically enough since in her last life she was awful at Potions, but that was mostly because of Snape who hated her). Though the potions in this world couldn't really be considered magic at all, or at least, they could be produced by anyone, whether they had magic or not. You only needed to know the repices and the right process to make them. You didn't need to pronounce spells while making them, like the potions in her old world sometimes required._

_Some potions are for medical use, others can be used for agricultural purposes (as pesticides or to make the fields fertile no matter the conditions of the soil or the weather, some can even be used to make plants and trees grow faster), some as beauty products (even anti-aging ones who were much more effective than the 'creams' muggles sold in her old world), others had more dangerous uses (poisons, 'love/fertility potions' like the one that Xaro Xhoan Daxos had used on her, sleeping potions, potions that lowered inhibitions, hallucinogenic potions etc). Some recipes for the potions came from some books she had found in Valyria, others came from Asshai. The potions that had medical uses and the beauty potions, she decides to produce in big quantities and sell (though, of course, in Astapor - and eventually Yunkai and Meereen - the medical potions like the medical help was free for all citizens, just like the food)._

_Valyria was the greatest civilization this world had ever seen not only because of the dragons but also because of the magic they used. Their magic was deeply connected to every aspect of their lives and while some magic was dark (human sacrifices for example) not everything was 'fire and blood'._

_Kinvara also teaches her about seeing the future (only glimpses – visions in the flames) and that helps make her dragon dreams less confusing._

_She also learns a form of mind magic that is similar to Legilimency but less invasive. She doesn't see inside the minds of others but she can perceive what they're feeling and if they're lying to her._

_That is how she finds out about Jorah's betrayal. And also, why she forgives him. Jorah had first sought her out because he was working for Robert Baratheon as a spy (he wanted a pardon for his crimes and to return home). He was the one who had sent word that she had been pregnant with Rhaego but he had also been the one to save her from the merchant who had tried to poison her. She knows that he's genuinely regretful of his actions and completely loyal to her now. She also knows that Jorah is in love with her but while those feelings make her uncomfortable, they also show her that she can trust him. All he wants is to serve her, not only because he loves her but because he believes in her as queen and because serving her gives his life purpose and makes him a better man._

_Months pass and Daenerys starts her plans for Valyria as well. In one of the Valyrian books she has found the cure for Greyscale, not only for the body but also for the mind. The first step would therefore be to cure those who lived in Valyria as stone men. Then, they would need to purify the air and get rid of the smoke, and drain the seawater that surrounds the ruined buildings and that flooded the streets. Then, they would need to cool down the entire place (and for that she would need to use magic). After that, they could start building again, using the resources already present in the Peninsula and the recipe for the concrete that Daenerys had already used for the new buildings in Astapor._

_She knows it's an ambitious endeavor and that it would take a long time for it to be completed but she would see it happen._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since it seems it’s not clear, I just wanted to point out that this is a summary, not an actual chapter and all the things listed here Daenerys doesn’t accomplish them in a day. She stays in Astapor for two years (and one year in Yunkai and four years in Meereen) and she puts things in motion so that, even once she leaves, the council she left to rule in her place will continue to realize her vision for the city.
> 
> It’s like she made a list of all the things she wanted to accomplish and while some are realized while she’s there, others will happen in the future.
> 
> Also, I know the whole thing about the inventions is becoming a little ridiculous but this Harry was a history nerd and I imagine someone who had so much knowledge about inventions who ends up in a medieval-like world, would want to take advantage of this knowledge and bring some more modern inventions to it. If those inventions help give work and gold to the population under her protection, well, that's just a bonus, right? 
> 
> I mean, imagine this girl who grew up miserable and alone at the Dursleys, without friends or no one to care for her. That's why she became so passionate about working in Petunia's garden, because there, no one bothered her. It was like she stepped into another, better, world while she worked in that garden. And she would spend hours and hours there, especially in the summers when she didn't have to go to school. And about history, well, she saw history a little bit like stories, fairytales, but real. With history she could pretend to live in other worlds and ages, and very far away from the Dursleys. 
> 
> When you take all that into consideration, I'm sure you don't find what I wrote so weird anymore, right?


	3. Summary Part 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I changed things from the initial idea and I decided to go in another direction. Therefore, the summary chapters became four instead of three. I, therefore, advise you to read them again and read the next chapter as well because I changed a lot of things. Hope you like this version as much as I do. I'm really satiafied with the plans I have in mind.

**__ **

**_-In Yunkai:_ **

_Not long after it's time to leave Astapor and march towards Yunkai. She decides to march with her soldiers to Yunkai instead of going by sea, because, though the numbers of ships she owns has increased (she now owns 150 ships), most of these ships are not war ready yet. They're mostly merchant ships that needs to be converted in war ships. Therefore, she leaves enough men to man the ships so that they would sail directly to Meereen once she would have conquered both cities._

_It's the end of the year 298 AC. Daenerys is almost 17._

_She leaves two thousand Unsullied to protect the city in her absence, which, in addition to the number of people trained during these two years she has been in the city, increases the army at about 8000 soldiers. The council she had chosen when she had first arrived, made of Astapori people, worked with her every step of the way during these years and she knows they will continue ruling the city well in her absence._

_Daenerys and Sirys are rather confident they can conquer Yunkai since that city only bred sex slaves. Jorah, however, expresses his concerns that the city's defenders would not fight them on the battlefield but would rather strengthen their position behind the walls and utilize guerrilla tactics against her army. He also views the Yunkai campaign as a distraction from their main goal of taking Westeros. Daenerys is, however, adamant on freeing the slaves of Yunkai, who number in the hundreds of thousands._

_She orders Grey Worm to send a messenger to the city and inform Yunkai's slaver rulers that they must either surrender or suffer the same fate as Astapor's masters. Daenerys holds an audience with the Yunkish herald, Razdal mo Eraz, who was one of the ruling "Wise Masters" of Yunkai. Razdal attempts to discourage Daenerys from attacking his city by claiming that numerous armies throughout history had tried and failed to conquer it. However, Daenerys is undaunted and comments that a hard-fought battle would give her Unsullied much-needed practice. Razdal then attempts to bribe her by providing her with gold and ships to transport her army to Westeros. In exchange, Daenerys would have to leave Yunkai in peace. Daenerys says that she doesn't need his gold or ships. There's nothing he can offer that would tempt her to leave._

_In fact, Daenerys makes a counter-offer: she will spare the lives of Razdal and the slave-masters of Yunkai if every slave (men, women, and children) in the city will be set free, and given as much food, clothing, and property as they could carry in payment for their services. She threatens to show no mercy if Yunkai rejects her offer. They have three days to satisfy her requests, if they don't, Daenerys and her armies will sack the city. Razdal is offended by Daenerys's demands and threatened to use Yunkai's "powerful friends" to destroy her._

_Daenerys is unfazed. Razdal leaves. Daenerys orders Sirys and Jorah to find out about Yunkai's 'powerful friends'._

_They eventually discover that these 'powerful friends' are two sellsword companies and some troops from New Ghis (about 1000) and the ex Valyrian cities of Mantarys, Tolos and Elyria (about 3000), in addition to the Yunkai's army of slaves which is six thousand strong. The Second Sons, one of the two sellswords' company, has two thousand men while the Stormcrows have one thousand men, 500 of which are mounted soldiers._

_Daenerys tells Jorah to organize a meeting with the sellsword companies' captains, saying that men who fight for gold "can't afford to lose to a girl"._

_The Stormcrows have three captains: Prendahl na Ghezn, Sallor the Bald and Daario Naharis. The first two are quick to refuse Daenerys' offer to fight for her instead, offering them gold and plunder. Daario Naharis is politer about it._

_Mero, the Titan's bastard and the captain of the Second Sons, behaves extremely rude in Daenerys' presence. Daenerys ignores his insults and advances (both to her and Missandei) and offers to pay more than Yunkai, gifting him with enough wine for him and his sellswords when he promises to consider her offer._

_Once they have all left, Daenerys reveals that she plans to attack the city that same night, while the Stormcrows are still arguing over her offer (the Stormcrows are a company of freed men and therefore the question of breaking the contract with Yunkai would have to be put to each man), the Second Sons are drunk on the wine she gave them, and the Yunkai'i believe they still have two more days._

_Shortly before the attack begins, Daario Naharis walks into the Targaryen camp. He presents Daenerys with the heads of Prendahl na Ghezn and Sallor, his fellow captains, and pledges the Stormcrows to her service._

_Daenerys leads the battle, though both Sirys and Jorah protests, saying that she's the Queen and can't afford to risk her life this way, she's too valuable. Daenerys asks: 'what kind of a queen am I if I don't risk my life to fight my enemies but let my people fight my battles for me?'_

_Her soldiers win the battle and she gets to kill Mero herself. Daenerys acquires another scar, this time a small vertical line on her left shoulder._

_Thousands are taken captive, and Daenerys agrees that any slave or sellsword who will swear loyalty to Daenerys are to be spared. At the end of the day her army has added 8000 soldiers to their ranks._

_Daenerys marches the last few leagues to Yunkai, and waits until the morning of the third day, when the city gates open and the slaves from Yunkai emerge, hailing her as "Mhysa", meaning "Mother" in Ghiscari._

_Daenerys stays in Yunkai for about a year. The work to rebuild Valyria finally starts._

_In Yunkai, she implements all the same changes that she made in Astapor, leaves a council to rule in her stead which she trust will follow her commands and then she marches towards Meereen._

**_-In Meereen_ **

_Daenerys and her armies are marching towards Meereen. It's the eleventh month of the year 299 AC._

_Daenerys stops for a while to spend time with her children. They are big enough to ride at this point, big enough to be used in battle._

_Daenerys hasn't tried to ride Drogon yet. She's not exactly sure how to go about it. Drogon is sometimes unpredictable and though she doesn't fear him, she sometimes wonders if he would ever allow her to ride him._

_Every day she has spent petting her three children and showering them with her affection but especially Drogon. She's waiting for a sign, an invitation on Drogon's part. For now, that invitation doesn't come._

_They resume their march._

_On the road to Meereen, Daenerys speaks with Missandei, who tells her queen that Meereen would be wise to fear her approach. Daario tries to impress her by showing her flowers and explain their various purposes. Daenerys feels the loneliness of too many years without a lover but Daario, while physically attractive, lacks the substance necessary to really tempt her into taking him as a lover, thing that she knew Daario would be more than happy to become._

_Drogo was the first and last person she had been with and she feels the absence of intimate human contact deeply, though she tries to ignore it. She was a queen and a queen shouldn't think about her own desires but always of those of her people._

_The marching army halts and Daenerys goes to the forefront, discovering a slave child nailed to a cross. The child is dead, her hand pointing the way to Meereen, and Ser Jorah tells Daenerys there is one for each mile to the last of the great slave cities, 163 in total. Sirys offers to have outriders go ahead and bury them, but Daenerys refuses, ordering that each of them be buried, and their collars removed, but not before she has looked upon each and every face._

_Daenerys encamps her army, now about 30'000 strong between Unsullied, Dothraki, sellswords and ex Yunkish slaves, outside of the walls of Meereen as she begins her siege. The meereenese masters propose a champion duel: a chosen 'hero of Meereen' against her own champion, who will fight to the death. Daario, Jorah, Sirys, Grey Worm and her bloodriders all offer to fight for her but Daenerys wants to fight him herself. They all protest, of course, saying she's needlessly risking her life. Daenerys is reckless by nature, it's true, but it's also about challenging herself and show those who follow her that she's willing to risk her own life for them, that she's not one who hides behind those sworn to her. She's a queen that fights her own battle, side by side with her men._

_The Meereenese champion is huge but slow. Daenerys uses this to her own advantage and though the fight is not an easy one, it ends quickly. She slashes behind both his knees and the champion falls down. Then she stabs him in the back of his neck. She also gains her third scar, a horizontal line just below the ribcage, on her right side._

_Once the fight is done, she begins speaking to the gathered slaves and then catapulting the broken chains of those she has freed across the city walls, demonstrating her previous successes. As the slaves examine the broken chains, the Great Masters look on in fear._

_Ben Plumm, the new commander of the Second Sons, suggests entering the city through the sewers. Daenerys agrees with the plan, thinking that, if they are able to convince the slaves to rebel, the battle would be won without the need to sack the city themselves._

_While her army tries to break the gates of the city from the outside, and her archers fire arrows at the city's defenders (mostly as a distraction from what's really happening inside the city), Jorah, Sirys, Grey Worm and nineteen Unsullied enter the city through the sewers to free the slaves, who then revolt. Daenerys makes sure to pass the message to the revolting slaves that while the slaves killing the masters will be forgiven, what won't be forgiven will be unnecessary violence against children (which are not to be touched) and the raping of women. Those are crimes and will be punished accordingly._

_The plan is successful, the slaves rise up against their masters, kill some of them and open the gates to Daenerys. She enters the city and the freedmen of Meereen celebrate her arrival by shouting "Mhysa" and throwing their old slaves' collars at her feet._

_Daenerys takes residence in the Great Pyramid and the Great Harpy of Meereen at its apex is covered with a great Targaryen banner. She then orders all the remaining masters to be brought to her. She interrogates every single one of them and finds 57 of them responsible for the crucifixion of the children. She therefore decides to kill them in the same way the children were killed, by nailing them on posts on the plaza in front of the Great Pyramid._

_Even with the ones responsible from these horrible crimes punished, she knows the threat the masters represent is far from over. She can't kill them outright, not now that she had taken the city and they weren't in the middle of a battle anymore, it wouldn't feel right. And she can't banish them either because that would mean that they would join the other masters outside these walls who were already numerous and still conspiring against her to take back the cities they had lost._

_All she could do was watch them and wait for them to actually make a move against her. (Keep your enemies closer and all that)._

_Her first order of business is to establish a Council like she did in the other cities. The second is to establish a city watch. The Brazen Beasts are formed. They're made up of shavepates and freedman and are of Meereenese birth, all ex pit fighters. Their leader is Skahaz mo Kandaq, who is also known as 'the Shavepate'. They're about 7000. Then she starts to set things in motion to establish all the other laws, reforms and changes that she made in Astapor and Yunkai (crops, farming, trade routes, tribunal, prison, hospital, orphanage, water and sewer systems, school, spinning mills and sewing machines, printing press, public library, new coins etc)._

_Daario informs her that the Stormcrows have commandeered the Meereenese navy in her name. Daenerys doesn't like the fact that he acted without her command but she doesn't protest too much since she has just added 93 ships to her own navy of 150 ships. Still, she gives the order for new ships to be built so they can begin trading with other cities. In the meantime, they will use hers._

_Daenerys’ advisors inform her of the death of the Usurper and the rumor that Joffrey Baratheon – the new King – is not even Robert Baratheon's son but of his wife Cersei with the Kingslayer (in fact all three Baratheon children are, in reality, Lannisters bastards). Because of this, the Warden of the North, Ned Stark, was executed, causing his son Robb to rise in rebellion and declare himself King in the North and both of Robert's brothers, Stannis and Renly, to declare themselves kings as well._

_Jorah tells her that this would be the perfect opportunity for her to go to Westeros but Daenerys refuses once again, stating that until the situation in Slaver's Bay is secure, she will not leave._

_Daenerys sets up the time to hear petitions from her new subjects. Among the first is a goatherd whose flock were roasted by her dragons; Dany orders him paid three times their value. Next is a man that introduces himself as Ser Barristan Selmy. He explains that he was a Kingsguard for her family and that he had fought for Rhaegar in the battle of the Trident. Sirys and Jorah both informs her though that he had bent the knee to the Usurper. Barristan asks forgiveness for that, stating that he hadn't known what else to do at the time since Rhaegar had been killed and he admitted that he just thought about saving his own life. He also says that he heard all that Daenerys did – from Illyrio Mopatis – and that he would be honored to serve her. Daenerys is angry at him but doesn't turn him away. Instead she looks at him and senses his sincerity (thanks to Kinvara's teachings about mind magic, the same she had used to figure out who were the masters responsible for killing those children). She accepts to have him in her Queensguard and forgives him since she had forgiven Jorah as well._

_Not long after, in a meeting with her advisors – held in the highest quarters of the Great Pyramid – she learns that the Masters are trying to take back Astapor and Yunkai. Both cities are being sieged by Ghiscari forces – plus forces from Mantarys, Tolos and Elyria – (5000 men) and sellsword companies (Windblown – 2000 men between mounted horses and foot soldiers – , Company of the Cat – 3000 men –, Company of the Rose – 3000 men –, Wolf Pack – 2500 men –, Stormbreakers – 2000 men –,  Bright Banners – 2000 men –, Gallant Men – 2500 men –, Free Company - 1000 men) paid by the Yunkish masters who were forced to flee when Daenerys took the city and who have allied themselves with ‘friends’ from Volantis – they are able to put together a force of more than 20’000 men. The men that Daenerys left to protect the cities are holding their own but Daenerys orders Ser Jorah and Ser Barristan to command a legion of 3000 Unsullied each to help the Astapori and Yunkish soldiers protect their cities._

_It's the third month of the year 300 AC. Ser Jorah and Ser Barristan are not yet back from Astapor and Yunkai but both cities are resisting against the sieges. Daenerys went a brief time to Valyria to see how the rebuilding of the city is proceding. She's happy with the progress. Moreover, her men are also able to reopen the mines still present in the Peninsula, still filled with gold, silver, iron, copper, precious gems and even black marble and obsidian._

_She also chooses two ruined cities in the Peninsula as her first outposts where to build holdfasts (towerhouses really): Oros and Tyria. Oros is also close to the Lands of the Long Summer which were once the most fertile lands in Essos and that she intends to return to their previous state, with the help of magic._

_On her way back to Meereen, she stops to visit two uninhabited islands, the Isle of Cedars and Yaros. Both islands have plentiful wildlife, green but still forests with twisted trees, strange, bright flowers, white sand and turquoise water that surround them. The Isle of Cedars is a mysterious place, with its two ruined cities, Ghozai and Velos that were once Valyrian settlements, but Daenerys senses the magic still present there and she's not afraid. Daenerys decides to build tower holdfasts and make the islands outposts as well (two in the Isle of Cedars - in the two ruined cities), since both are positioned in rather strategic places. This way they could be warned if enemy ships (from the Masters) were approaching Astapor (from the Isle of Cedars) and Yunkai and Meereen (from Yaros)._

_At her return to Meereen, an evoy from Qarth - the Spice King who had already refused to help her when she had visited Qarth previously - threatens her to stop what she's doing and leave Slaver's Bay or there will be consequences. Daenerys is not intimidated. She says that, if they don't stop buying and selling slaves in Qaarth as well, she will burn him alive, and everyone else who will continue this ignoble practice, and she's a queen who always keeps her promises._

_The Spice King leaves, not believing her._

_The Golden Harpy is removed from the top of the Great Pyramid. Daenerys rules Meereen as its queen and though the slaves are now all free and with their own livelihood, she faces enemies from both inside and outside Meereen's walls. A resistance group of Ghiscari noblemen from Meereen, the Sons of the Harpy, engage in a shadow war against Daenerys. The first victim is one of her Unsullied, White Rat. Daenerys is furious. She orders that he'd be buried with full honors in the Temple of the Graces as a statement to the Sons of the Harpy, and orders that all her Unsullied – in addition to the Brazen Beasts – patrol the streets of Meereen._

_Not long after, Daenerys learns that her forces have won against the Masters' and that both Astapor and Yunkai are free once again. On their return, ser Jorah and ser Barristan informs her that some sellswords companies joined her side (the Wolf Pack and the Stormbreakers who were both founded by Westerosi - in the case of the Wolf Pack, northerners - who had joined the Blacks during the Dance of Dragons and that, after the war, had left Westeros and went to Essos, and the Bright Banners, the Free Company and the Gallant Men, who saw the Masters’ forces were losing and changed sides at the last moment). One of the captains of the Wolf Pack (the others are Beskha and Croft) is Asher Forrester, an exile from a noble House in the North. Asher killed Caggo, the right-hand man of the Tattered Prince (the captain and founder of the Windblown) and took Caggo’s Valyrian Steel Arakh for himself. Even some members of the Windblown have defected and are now ready to swear allegiance to Daenerys. Among those, there’s Quentyn Martell with Ser Cletus Yronwood, Ser Gerris Drinkwater, Ser Willam Wells, Ser Archibald Yronwood, and Maester Kedry. Quentyn and his friends reveal that they are knights, and not, as they led her to believe, sellswords, but ask for privacy in order to reveal their names. After the court is cleared, Quentyn hands over his "gift", a parchment containing a secret pact, signed by Prince Sirys Targaryen and Prince Oberyn Martell, with the Sealord of Braavos witnessing the signatures. The pact was for Viserys Targaryen to wed Quentyn's sister, Arianne, in return for Dorne's support in helping the exile regain the Iron Throne. Sirys confirms this. Daenerys wants to know why he never told her but Sirys replies that, since Viserys died in Braavos, he thought the pact wouldn’t matter anymore. Quentyn, however, says that Dorne wants to still honor the pact and he offers himself as a husband for Daenerys in return for the support of Dorne. Daenerys says that she needs to think about his proposal and orders Quentyn and his friends to be treated courteously. She gives the Dornishmen a room in the pyramid._

_The next day Daenerys invites him to meet Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion. The dragons frighten Quentyn, but nonetheless he tells Daenerys about his own Targaryen ancestry. Daenerys tells him that she can’t marry him because she can’t have children and that he does not belong in Meereen, and urges him to return home, as her court is not a safe place for him. Quentyn refuses, saying he can’t return to Dorne empty-handed. Daenerys says that he can stay for as long as he wants. Daenerys wants Dorne as an ally but without having to marry once again for purely political interests. Quentyn wants an alliance with the Queen, sealed by a marriage pact, and he doesn’t believe Daenerys can’t have children. They’re at an impasse._

_She later receives Hizdahr zo Loraq as a representative from one of the noble families in Meereen. Hizdahr proposes to Daenerys to reopen the fighting pits but Daenerys refuses._

_Later that day, Daario tries to convince her to reconsider, explaining that he was once a slave who earned his freedom in the pits. The skills he learned ultimately led him to the Stormcrows and thence to Daenerys. Daenerys decides to think about it._

_The next day Daario and Grey Worm bring to her the Son of the Harpy responsible for the death of White Rat._

_Daenerys wants to give the man a fair trial even if she already knows he's guilty. Mossador, an ex-slave who is now in her council, insists the man be put to death immediately. Daenerys answers that everyone deserves a trial, that she can't just put men to death without him be proven guilty first._

_Later, Mossador goes against Dany's order and executes the man, angering Daenerys. She gives Mossador the trial that was denied to the Son of the Harpy and then he's publicly executed. A crowd gathers to witness Mossador's execution and Daenerys tells the crowd that when she conquered Meereen she promised freedom and justice, but one cannot exist without the other. Daenerys is escorted away by her men when riots break out between the freedmen and the masters._

_She retreats to her pyramid where she wants to spend time alone. She steps out onto her balcony and finds Drogon atop the Great Pyramid. She pets him for a while and Drogon's presence serves to calm her down. She's not spending as much time as she wants with her dragons because they made their nests outside the city so it's not often that she can go to them. She's happy that Drogon has sought her out. He's so big that he barely fits on top of the pyramid._

_The next day Daenerys orders Daario and his Stormcrows to go to Lhazar to offer them their protection against both Dothraki and Slavers in exchange for the use of their territories for farming and to grow crops._

_By now, news of Daenerys's dragons and her campaign are starting to reach all corners of the world. In Westeros, several acolytes of the Citadel discuss the stories they have heard; Sailors speak of dragons in Asshai, Qarth, and Meereen, dragons among the Dothraki, and dragons freeing slaves. Though all the tales differ in details, all speak of dragons and a beautiful young queen. An acolyte of the Citadel points out that, though Viserys Targaryen perished years ago, Daenerys is still very much alive. A maester at the citadel informs the acolytes that Daenerys has, in fact, hatched herself three dragons. Varys informs Tyrion Lannister of Daenerys and her dragons. Even Joffrey Baratheon and Tywin Lannister speak about Daenerys' dragons but Tywin doesn't seem concerned with 'lizards half-across the world'._

_Rumors of Daenerys's striking beauty spread far and wide as well. She soon gains the reputation of being the most beautiful woman in the world._

_Somewhere else in Essos, the head of a man, executed for spying on behalf of Daenerys and fermenting rebellion, is displayed on the Long Bridge of Volantis. Slaves all over the Free Cities are starting to become restless, thanks in part to the Red Priests and Priestesses who hail Daenerys as the Princess that Was Promised and the one who will free all the world from darkness._

_Days later the murders continue. Daenerys is always able to find the ones responsible. She always makes sure to give them a fair trial and then they're executed. Still, she knows it's not enough. The Sons of the Harpy are everywhere in the city and though she knows who some of them are, she can't do anything against them until they do something worthy of being executed._

_One day, Daenerys is looking down at the streets below from her royal apartment in the Great Pyramid. Ser Barristan arrives and shares a story of how he and Rhaegar used to leave the Red Keep and mingle with the common people on the streets. Though she had heard stories from Sirys, she was always happy to learn new things about him. Rhaegar had been far from perfect, running away with Lyanna Stark and all, but he wasn't the monster Westeros had painted him as. Barristan soon tells her that one time him and Rhaegar spent the money Rhaegar earned playing for the common people to get horribly drunk and Dany laughs._

_Sirys arrives telling her that Hizdahr is in the throne room awaiting her. Daenerys gives both men the day off, telling them that she's perfectly able of defending herself from Hizdahr. In the throne room, Daenerys hears Hizdahr plead again to reopen the fighting pits of Meereen, but she refuses. Hizdahr rationally argues that the fighting pits provide a great spectacle that has always been enjoyed by both the masters and slaves, and is one of the few things that can bring the city together. Dany does not interrupt him this time as he continues to offer his proposal._

_Galazza Galare, the Green Grace and the high priestess of the Ghiscari Temple of the Graces (one of the people Daenerys has chosen for the Meereen council), counsels Daenerys that she should take a Meereenese noble as her husband, and she actually proposes Hizdahr zo Loraq for the role. Daenerys is very reluctant to marry again, especially a man she doesn't respect, let alone love. She refused Quentyn Martell but she fears she will have to make a political marriage anyway._

_After yet another attack, losing at least ten of her Unsullied and two Dothraki (plus a few of the Brazen Beasts as well), she decides that Galazza Galare is probably right and that maybe marrying one of the Meereenese would finally bring peace in the city. She calls Hizdahr once again into the throne room and tells him that she has thought about his proposal. She will reopen the fighting pits but every person fighting there will be there of their own choice. Not only that, the fighting won't be to the death but it will be a tournament (similar to the melee in Westerosi tournaments) and the one who will win will be given a reward of 1000 silver dragons (the new coin for Astapor, Yunkai and Meereen). Moreover, she will announce their marriage at the Tournament. Hizdhar is shocked but not displeased. Daenerys makes him understand that she will be the one in charge._

_Quentyn is offended to know that Daenerys is meant to marry someone else. Daenerys says that she has no other choice. She’s doing it to bring peace to Meereen. Quentyn says that her place is in Westeros and not here, but Daenerys has no intention of leaving Essos until the future of the ex-slaves is secured and there’s finally peace in Slaver’s Bay. Quentyn understands her reasoning, though he’s still displeased._

_Daario returns and brings her good news: negotiations with the Lhazareen have been successful. He also informs her that, while returning to Meereen, Daario and his Stormcrows faced the Long Lances, a sellsword company hired by Yunkai, in the Khyzai Pass, but Daario boasts that twelve of them defected to his side, while only nine of his own had died. Daenerys tells Daario about the troubles within and outside of the city, and that Galazza had suggested a marriage to Hizdahr to create peace. When Daario suggests that Daenerys should agree to a marriage only as a pretense to gather all the Great Masters and kill them, Daenerys is reminded once again that while she finds Daario attractive she could never trust him enough to make him her lover let alone something more._

_It's the day of the tournament. And also, the tenth month of the year 300 AC. Attended by all her loyal retinue (Sirys, Ser Barristan, Grey Worm, her bloodriders, Missandei, Daario Naharis, Ben Plumm, Kinvara, Archmaester Marwyn, the Shevapate, Quentyn Martell and the Dornish men with him and those who forms the Meereenese council like Galazza Galare) plus, of course, her betrothed Hizdahr zo Loraq, Daenerys sits in the royal box at the Daznak's Pit. She announces to the crowd her intention to marry Hizdahr and that the winner of this tournament will win 1000 silver coins. The crowd rejoices._

_Then silence falls. Daenerys looks at Hizdahr in question and Hizdahr tells her to clap her hands as a sign to begin the Great Games._

_The Games begin. Every time first blood is drawn, one of her men escorts the losing fighter outside the arena._

_It's almost the ending of the game when Sirys violently throws her to the floor and protects her with his body. Sirys is stabbed to dead to protect her and dies. Daenerys is devasted. Soon it's chaos. The Sons of the Harpy reveal themselves on every level of the arena and begin slaughtering Masters and freedmen alike. Even Hizdahr is killed. Daenerys and her men fight to the best of their abilities but most of her army has been left out of the Daznak's Pit. Jorah and Barristan try to find an exit route from the Pit but without success, all ways are blocked by the Sons of the Harpy._

_Finding all the exits blocked, the group makes a stand in the centre of the Pit with the remainder of the Unsullied defenders. Seeing they are hopelessly outnumbered, Daenerys closes her eyes and reach out desperately for Drogon. She doesn't know if it'll work, she has never tried to communicate like this with him before but she trusts that their bond is strong enough for this._

_Her trust is rewarded because not even ten seconds later a loud, powerful screech pierces the air, and Drogon descends upon the arena, flying out of a giant flame burst. Many of the Sons scatter in terror as Drogon bites and mercilessly burns the nearest ones to death. The Sons rally enough to attack Drogon with spears, but Drogon's hide is tough enough that they do little damage, though one of those spears ends up stuck on Drogon's left bone wing. Daenerys takes the spear out but Drogon growls in pain. Trying to get Drogon out of the Sons' range, Dany climbs atop his back and bids him to fly, becoming the first Targaryen dragonrider in over a century. Daenerys burns most of the Sons of the Harpy while flying on top of Drogon. The rest of them are killed by her men._

_So, with the Sons of the Harpy temporarily defeated, her retinue watch in astonishment as Drogon, with Daenerys on his back, soars away._

_Later, Daenerys finds herself far away from Meereen, atop an impressive hill in a sea of green grass. Drogon is still recovering from his wound and is uninterested in flying back. Unfortunately, he's also not interested in finding them any food. Daenerys wanders away to find something for them, but is shocked to see a trio of Dothraki bloodriders emerge. Within minutes, an entire khalasar has her surrounded. Understanding what might happen to her, she quickly removes her mother's ring and drops it in the grass, determined to leave a trail for her men to find. She's unfortunately without her weapons – she lost them during the fight in the Pit – and can't hope to fight an entire khalasar alone._

_Now a prisoner of the khalasar, Daenerys is brought before their leader, Khal Moro, enduring remarks about her appearance from her captors. Out of jealousy, Moro's wives suggest killing Daenerys, though he repeatedly ignores them. Daenerys reveals her identity, but Moro laughs off her titles, saying she is nothing more than his bed slave. Daenerys refuses, revealing herself as the widow of Khal Drogo. As it is forbidden for a khal to sleep with a widowed khaleesi, Moro has a change of heart, cuts her free and promises no one will touch her. A grateful Daenerys promises to reward him with more horses if she is returned to Meereen, but Moro informs her that she will be escorted to the Temple of the Dosh Khaleen in Vaes Dothrak, a home for other widowed khaleesi._

_Daenerys eventually returns to Vaes Dothrak and arrives at the Temple of the Dosh Khaleen. Inside, the other widowed khaleesis strip her of her clothing and jewellery and give her traditional Dothraki clothing. She tries to persuade them to help her escape, but their leader lectures her on how Daenerys believed Khal Drogo would conquer the world with her at his side, just as they all believed the same of their own husbands before they were slain. Daenerys is then informed that she had violated Dothraki law by not immediately joining the Dosh Khaleen after Drogo died, and her fate will be decided soon by the khals at the "khalar vezhven"._

_The High Priestess of the Dosh Khaleen introduces Dany to the other khaleesis, some of whom hate her for not being of pure blood. During her time in captivity, Daenerys befriends a young khaleesi named Ornela, a Lhazareen girl taken from her village at the age of twelve. The High Priestess gives Dany permission to relieve herself outside but sends Ornela to escort her. The pair are accosted by Jorah Mormont and Daario Naharis, who have travelled to Vaes Dothrak to rescue her. She tells them to cancel their rescue plan and proposes a plan of her own._

_At the Khalar vezhven, Daenerys tells the gathered khals that none of them are fit to lead the Dothraki. Daenerys declares that she will lead them herself. After a pause, Moro and the khals burst into laughter. Dany reminds them that her husband, in the same temple in which they all now sit, declared that he would lead a Dothraki army across the Narrow Sea to retake the Iron Throne for his Khaleesi and that all the khals have done since then was raiding and plunder of villages in lieu of any meaningful conquest. Disgusted with her insolence, Moro declares that she will be raped by each of the khals, then by all of their bloodriders, and then, if she is still alive, by their horses._

_Daenerys's broad smile deepens at his threats and replies that they won't have to follow her because this is where they will die. She knocks over the braziers at the centre of the temple, setting the entire building aflame. The khals desperately attempt to escape the rapidly spreading fire, only to find the temple's only door barred, the bodies of the two khaleen guarding it lying dead outside. Moro tries to confront Dany a final time, but she upends the last brazier on him, completing the conflagration. As the flames climb higher, the dosh khaleen and khalasars gather in confusion. Eventually, the doors collapse and Daenerys emerges, naked and unburnt. Many of the assembled bow immediately, with the high priestess and the rest of the dosh khaleen following. Soon all the khalasars are bowing before her. Jorah and Daario move to the front of the crowd and bow last._

_All the khalasars in the world have been united into one and now follow Daenerys. It's composed of more than 100'000 people and about 75'000 of them are fighters. They're on the way back to Meereen when Daenerys senses something in the distance and rides ahead to investigate. A few moments later, she returns on the back of a fully-healed Drogon, declaring all of the khalasar as her bloodriders instead of selecting a select few. She then vows to lead them to conquer Westeros._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Regarding Sirys/Sirius' death. I knew, when I decided to kill him off, it would make some people angry but trust me when I say that his death has a reason. I didn't kill him off just because I felt like it.
> 
> First of all, Sirys' death has a very specific point and that's the fact that the more Daenerys gains and the more she loses. Everything she has gained came at the price of something else, something she has lost. She got the dragons but lost her husband and child in the process. She got gold and ships from Qaarth but she was also raped, and her handmaidens, her friends, were killed as well. She conquered Slaver's Bay and acquired a huge army but she lost the most important person she had.
> 
> Second, the death of Sirys is symbolic just as much as Ned Stark's death is for the Stark children. The whole 'kill the boy, Jon Snow and let the man be born' thing that Aemon says to Jon. It means letting go of your childhood security.
> 
> Also, Sirys represented family for her, the only family she has ever known. Rhaenys is in the picture so Dany is not the Last Targaryen but she can’t compare with Sirius who was her father in everything but name. Therefore why she will jump at the opportunity to meet Aemon. But he dies because he's old and frail. Therefore when she meets Jon, well, it will be very complicated and bittersweet (but in a good way) as you can imagine.
> 
> So yeah, sorry about that, I love Sirius but sometimes sacrifices are required for the story plot, even of characters I love.


	4. Summary Part 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I changed things from the initial idea and I decided to go in another direction. Therefore, the summary chapters became four instead of three. I, therefore, advise you to reread the previous chapters and read this chapter as well because I changed a lot of things. Hope you like this version as much as I do. I'm really satiafied with the plans I have in mind.
> 
> Btw, I imagine Aiysha Hart as Rhaenys Targaryen but with dark indigo eyes, Edric Storm as Aneurin Barnard and Quentyn Martell as Avan Jogia. You are free to imagine them as you prefer though.
> 
> Also, I'm just going to say it so there's no misunderstanding later on, hopefully. Rhaegar didn't annul his marriage with Elia in this story because that's just TV show bullshit that Dumb and Dumber pulled out of their asses. Instead, Rhaegar took Lyanna as his second wife under the Old Gods. That means that, while some would accept such a thing as a typical 'rule of exceptionalism' when it concerns the Targaryens, others will not be so understanding and accepting, especially Dorne. Still, either way, Viserys was crown King and not Aegon and Viserys made Dany his heir. Some would argue that Jon has more right than Dany because he's a man anyway, even if Viserys was crowned King over Aegon, Rhaegar's heir, but because of the fact that Rhaegar's marriage to Lyanna won't be considered valid by some, the whole right to throne thing is fuzzy at best. Some will say Dany has more right than Jon and some will say Jon has more right than Dany. It won't be as clear cut as they made it in the show because they wanted things as uncomplicated as possible to justify Daenerys going mad. But I'm not Dumb and Dumber and I don't just accept things as face value because they simply say so.
> 
> Anyway, hope you like this! Tell me what you think!

**_"The Seven Kingdoms need someone stronger than Tommen but gentler than Stannis. A monarch who could intimidate the High Lords and inspire the people. A ruler loved by millions, with a powerful army, and the right family name.”_ **

**_Game of Thrones 5x01_ **

* * *

_**-In Meereen** _

_In the meantime, in Meereen, taking advantage of Daenerys' absence, the Masters are laying siege to the city by sea and with the Sons of the Harpy still alive attacking by land. Ser Barristan had been trying to rule Meereen in Daenerys' absence and keep the situation under control in both Astapor and Yunkai but the situation, without Daenerys, is difficult. Daenerys is the first to return to the city on the back of Drogon, her khalasar a few days behind._

_Daenerys' first instinct is to just burn the entire fleet with Drogon but takes a deep breath and calm herself, knowing that, if she let it, her dragon temper could get the best of her. It's one of the first things Sirys had taught her, controlling her feelings, especially her rage. It's difficult because Sirys' loss is still very fresh. Still, she asks Ser Barristan what he would suggest to deal with the Masters._

_Ser Barristan explains his plan and Daenerys approves._

_Daenerys and her entourage then meet with the slave masters Grazdan zo Myraq, Belicho Paenymion, Yezzan zo Qaggaz; representing Volantis, Tyrosh and Myr respectively, and the Spice King from Qaarth. The masters discuss their terms of surrender, announcing they will allow Daenerys and Ser Barristan to leave the city, while Missandei and the Unsullied will be sold back into slavery, and the dragons will be slaughtered. Daenerys rejects their terms, informing them they aren't meeting for her surrender, but for theirs._

_The Masters are bewildered by Daenerys' unwavering confidence until Drogon lands beside her. She mounts her dragon and the two take flight, while Rhaegal and Viserion soon join their brother in the sky. Daenerys then orders her dragons to burn a few ships (three at the most) to show her power. Meanwhile, Grey Worm executes Grazdan and Belicho but spares Yezzan to spread tidings of her power. The Spice King she burns alive with Drogon like she had promised him. Daario and Jorah lead Daenerys' newly acquired khalasar to slaughter the Sons of the Harpy; ending the threat of the slave masters and their Harpy allies._

_There's finally peace in Slaver's Bay, which Daenerys renames the Bay of Dragons (or Dragons' Bay)._

_The Rogare Bank has grown in power and riches during these years and the now open association with Daenerys as one of its investors makes it even more powerful. It can't rival the Iron Bank yet but Daenerys really thinks that, a few years more, and it really could, especially if Daenerys manages to become, like she's being dreaming all her life, Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. Still, Lysandro Rogare has become, like he wanted, the First Magister of Lys and slavery has been abolished there, like he promised he would do. All in all, a good investment, at least for now; it would have been so, though, even without the shares in the profits Daenerys gets since she's the Bank's first investor._

_Not long after, she receives envoys from the cities of Mantarys, Tolos and Elyria. New leaders have been installed in these three cities (ex-slaves) - after a bloody rebellion - and these new leaders recognize Daenerys as their Queen._

_A few days after that than an envoy from the Red Temple of Volantis, Moqorro, shows up in Meereen, wanting an audience with Daenerys. Moqorro said that Benerro, the High Priest of Volantis, sent him to help Daenerys and that the Fiery Hand is hers since, once again, they believe she's the Princess that was Promised. Daenerys says that she doesn't need slaves in her armies, even slaves to the Red God. Instead, Daenerys says that she wants the Temple of Volantis to convince the slaves in the city to finally rebel against their Masters. Moqorro bows to Daenerys and says it will be done but that, should she need their help, the Fiery Hand will always come to her aid._

_Not long after Moqorro's visit to the city, Daenerys learns that the slaves in Volantis are rebelling against their masters and that other slaves in the other Free Cities are doing the same._

_Fighting companies in her name form all over Essos and some come to Meereen to swear allegiance to Daenerys like the Mother's Men (1000 men. Its members are all former slaves. Their commander is Marselen, a former Unsullied), the Free Brothers (1600 men. Its members are all former slaves. Their commander is Symon Stripeback) and the Stalwart Shields (1400 men. Its members are all former slaves. Their commander is Mollono Yos Dob).  
_

_Daenerys decides to create new outposts in most of the ruined cities of the Dothraki Sea, to delimit her territory and to help with the trade routes to Slaver's Bay. She has towerhouses built in: Vaes Khewo (once Sarnath), Yalli Qamayi (once Sathar), Vaes Athjikhari (once Sallosh), Vaes Graddakh (once Sarys), Vaes Khadosh (once Essaria), Vaes Diaf (once Hazdahn Mo), Vaes Jini (once Yinishar), Vaes Qosar (once Qolahn), Vaes Tolorro (the ruined city she had once stopped in before being invited to Qarth), Vaes Orvik, Vaes Shirosi, Krazaaj Has (once Ghardaq), Vaes Leisi and Vaes Aresak (once Ibbish). Thanks to the new outposts in Vaes Leisi, Vaes Aresak and Vaes Graddakh, they can start negotiations for trade deals with Ibben as well. Also, thanks to the new outpost of Vaes Jini, they can also start negotiations to trade with the sister cities of Bayasabhad, Kayakayanaya, and Samyriana._

_She also builds holdfasts in two islands of the Stepstones (Bloodstone and Grey Gallows - the largest ones) and one in the Disputed Lands, on the Northern coast, halfway between Tyrosh and Myr, to facilitate trade with these two cities but also to maintain control of the territories which, for years, have been plagued by the reaving of pirates and by strifes and wars, in the ruined cities of Old Ghis (to keep an eye on the Ghiscari who had allied with the Masters against her), Bhorash (half way between Mantarys and Meereen, to keep an eye on the cities that just fallen under her rule), Ar Noy, Ny Sar, Chroyane, Ghoyan Drohe and Sar Mell (once Rhoynar cities and that now would be useful to her because of the close proximity to the Free Cities)._

_For every tower holdfast, Daenerys had designated one person chosen among the population of Astapor, Yunkai and Meereen that Daenerys trusted with the responsibilities they would have and that they would follow Daenerys’ laws, to act as the de facto lords of the holdfasts. The territory around the towerhouses would be theirs to control and take care of. For every holdfast, about 600 men had been assigned to guard it (from the various sellsword companies sworn to her except for the Golden Company, the Wolf Pack and the Stormbreakers) and protect it and with that, the people inside. Other than the new lords, the tower holdfast would have to be big enough for kitchen stuff, various other servants that would fill various roles and fieldhands to work the fields around the holdfast._

_After many musings and doubts, Daenerys also decides to start producing gunpowder and make cannons, that would be used to arm the walls of the holdfasts and those of the cities of Dragons' Bay. She hadn't liked the idea of introducing it into the world but she had relented when she had realized that things like wildfire existed in this world anyway, so one way or another, humans would always find ways to kill each other, without her contribution. Still, she kept the 'recipe' for the gunpowder (though she called it 'black powder') close to her chest. She knew it would spread eventually but for now, people would look at the strange powder and figured it was just some strange sorcery created by the Mother of Dragons. People in Essos knew she used magic but they didn't call it magic but miracles, which was extremely weird but the reputation she sometimes had as a 'goddess' worked in her favour so she wouldn't complain._

_Daenerys also learns of the death of the King in the North, Robb Stark, during the so-called Red Wedding, betrayed by his bannermen (the Boltons) and the Freys and orchestrated by the Lannisters. Asher Forrester also learns that all his family has been killed, some by the Whitehills who had sided with the Boltons and have taken Ironrath for themselves (Mira Forrester, Asher's sister, who was Margaery Tyrell's handmaiden, was accused of treason by Cersei and executed). (Asher's father was at the Red Wedding with Robb Stark and he was killed by Frey soldiers while the thirdborn son of the family, Ethan, was killed by Ramsey Snow because the Forresters won't bend the knee to Roose Bolton, the new Warden of the North). Asher is now the legitimate Lord of Ironrath and wants to take it back and avenge his family. Daenerys swears that, once she sails to Westeros, she will help him take back his home if he can convince other noble houses of the North to help her take back hers._

_Time passes and It's soon the tenth month of the year 301 AC._

_In Braavos, a Girl is still Arya Stark of Winterfell. She can't let go of her identity. (Arya escaped to Essos after the Red Wedding, leaving the Hound to die). She goes through the training of the Faceless Men but she keeps failing the Game of Faces. She fails her first assignment because she's distracted by Meryn Trant, who's in the city to treat with the Iron Bank the debt that the crown owns. She slits his throat in a brothel and she's punished for it (the faceless men make her go blind). Arya's sight is restored after a time. Her training continues. Finally, she's sent on another assignment, to prove that she's really ready to become a faceless man. Her assignment is to kill Daenerys Targaryen._

_Arya asks why her and who wants her dead. She's heard differing things about the Mother of Dragons. Some say she's cruel and mad, that she burns men alive or feeds them to her dragons. That she's a tyrant. (Arya can't help but be reminded of the Mad King because of that). Others though talk about her like she's a Goddess, that she can make miracles happen (make rain when it’s been dry for days, walk through fire unharmed, cure people who are on the brink of death). She freed slaves and gave them better lives. Slaver's Bay is thriving under her rule. The former slaves call her Mhysa (Mother)._

_Arya is supposed to infiltrate her household, become one of her handmaids and kill her. She will have to wear a different face. Arya finds out that, who wants Daenerys dead, are the former Masters who escaped Yunkai when Daenerys took the city._

_She leaves Braavos and travels to Meereen by sea. The months at sea are spent learning to accept her fake identity like it was her real one. Her name is Nymeria Snow. She's a bastard from a minor Northern house who escaped to Essos after the Ironborns started raiding the North. She lived in Braavos for a time but then, she left and went to Volantis where she was sold into slavery. Fortunately, because she could read and write, she was chosen as a tutor for the children of her Master while also being a handmaid for the wife of her Master. Still, after she heard of Daenerys freeing the slaves, she was able to escape and decided to go to Meereen. She hopes to find a job within the Queen's Household._

_In Meereen, she goes as a supplicant in front of the Queen. Daenerys looks into her eyes and sees that Nymeria is sincere (she believes what she's saying – Daenerys' power is not infallible. Because Arya really believes what she's saying, Daenerys perceives it as the truth). Daenerys hires her as one of her handmaids. She misses Irri, Jhiqui and Doreah who had been killed in Qaarth. Now, there's only Missandei._

_Arya starts to work for the Queen and, the more she sees, and the more she realizes that Daenerys doesn't deserve to be killed. Arya starts to admire and care for the Queen. Finally, she decides that she's not going to complete her assignment. She warns the Queen about it. She tells her the whole truth (who she really is, why she was sent there etc). Daenerys banishes her from the city, angry, hurt and feeling betrayed. Arya returns to Braavos, to tell Jaqen H'ghar that she's leaving Braavos and returning to Westeros ('A girl is Arya Stark of Winterfell and she's going home.'). Jaqen has no intention of letting her go so easily. He sends the Waif to kill Daenerys and tells Arya just that. 'The Many-Face God has been promised a life' and all that. Arya goes to Meereen once again to save Daenerys. She stops the Waif from killing Daenerys – she kills the Waif but she's severely wounded. Daenerys cures her and thanks her for saving her life. She's sorry she sent Arya away. Arya says she understands but that, if Daenerys allows it, she would like to stay there and then, when Daenerys will sail to Westeros, she wants Daenerys' help to avenge her family and take back Winterfell. Daenerys agrees and says that, if she wants, she will make Arya Lady of Winterfell once they take back her home. Arya doesn't particularly want to be Lady of Winterfell but if it means not allowing the Ironborns, the Lannisters or the Boltons to have her home, then she's going to do it. Arya sends the Waif's body back to the House of the Black and White with a message: that the Many-Face God got the one life that he was promised (in replacement of Daenerys') so not to try again to send assassins to kill Daenerys again._

_(Arya and Daenerys start to train together, sparring against each other, in swordfighting and with daggers. Arya also starts to train with Ser Barristan, Ser Jorah, Greyworm and Rakahro - one of Dany's bloodriders - to hone her abilities with a sword, with a dagger and with a bow)._

_Some time passes still and Daenerys and Arya learn that Joffrey Baratheon has been killed at his own wedding, supposedly by his uncle Tyrion Lannister. They also learn of the death of Oberyn Martell by the Mountain during the trial by combat to establish if Tyrion was really responsible for killing Joffrey._

_It's days later when it is indeed Tyrion Lannister who shows up asking an audience with Daenerys, together with Lord Varys the spider, the captain of the Golden Company who introduces himself as Griff and a young woman, a little older than Daenerys. Daenerys doesn't trust anyone of these men (Arya doesn't trust Tyrion and Lord Varys because she met them in King's Landing and says that to their faces. Both Tyrion and Varys are surprised to find Arya Stark in Meereen of all places) but Daenerys decides to listen to them anyway. Lord Varys explains that he had been working in secret for years, together with his friend Illyrio Mopatis, for a Targaryen restoration. Daenerys asks why, if he was so loyal to the Targaryens, he served Robert Baratheon for years and even sent the order himself to have her killed together with her son. Varys answers that his real loyalty is with the Realm and that he just tried to stay alive and that he also wanted to make sure that Daenerys was a ruler worthy of her name because he had no intention of helping Westeros gain another mad ruler like her father. But she is, she proved it with everything that she did in Slaver's Bay; in fact, he's absolutely convinced she's the best hope Westeros has and probably the best ruler Westeros had ever and will ever have._

_That is why he brought her both the Golden Company and Tyrion Lannister to help her. Daenerys asks why she shouldn't just execute Tyrion for what his family did to hers. Tyrion starts to speak at that point and Daenerys is intrigued by his intelligence. He has a keen political mind that is obvious as soon as he opens his mouth._

_Daenerys then says that all of this doesn't explain why the Golden Company would fight for her since it was founded by a Targaryen bastard and had sided with the Blackfyres on multiple occasions. Varys smiles and says that 'black or red, a dragon is still a dragon'. Griff interrupts Varys before he can say anything further and explains that, in another life, his name was Jon Connington and that he was a friend of her brother Rhaegar and that he had served as Hand of the King during the War of the Usurper for her father Aerys. After failing to defeat Robert Baratheon during the Battle of the Bells, Jon was sent into exile to Essos when he made sure to spread the word that he had drunk himself to death. Instead, he had joined the Golden Company with the name Griff and had risen in its ranks quickly. While living life as a sellsword, he also took care of his daughter – the young woman next to him –, or at least, the girl who, as far as everyone knew, was her daughter. In reality, she's Rhaenys Targaryen, Rhaegar's daughter and Daenerys' niece. Daenerys doesn't believe it at first, saying that Rhaenys was killed in the Sack of King's Landing. But Varys intervenes and says that he was the one who saved Rhaenys by switching her with another girl, the one who was killed and that he was the one who smuggled her out of the city to his friend Illyrio Mopatis and from him Rhaenys was sent to Jon Connington who would take care of her for all these years. Varys had wanted to save Aegon as well but he had been unable to do so. Daenerys had to admit that Rhaenys, though not having the Targaryen looks (except for dark indigo eyes), did look like a Martell (Daenerys could see the resemblance with Quentyn). Still, she could be one of the many natural daughters of Oberyn Martell who was trying to pass as her niece and take the throne away from her and House Targaryen._

_Rhaenys speaks for herself for the first time and says that she has no wish to become Queen. Daenerys is the legitimate heir anyway because Viserys was crowned King, the Mad King had made him his heir, and Daenerys had been Viserys' heir. And who would believe her anyway? The only way for people to believe she was really Rhaenys would be by having Daenerys openly support her and vouching for her identity. All she wants is to avenge her family – her mother and her father, her brother and with that House Targaryen._

_Daenerys starts to believe in Rhaenys' sincerity, at the very least, though not completely trusting Varys' words, or this Jon Connington._

_Jon Connington continues explaining that, a few months ago, Illyrio Mopatis, having heard all that Daenerys had managed to accomplish (first by hatching dragons from the stone eggs he had given her and then by conquering Slaver's Bay and amassing riches and armies) had sought him out to propose Connington to fight for her, Daenerys, Rhaegar's sister. His allegiance has always been to House Targaryen, and he knows that Rhaegar would have wanted him to help his sister get the throne, as long as Rhaenys – whom he considers his daughter – will have a place in Daenerys' court once she conquers the Seven Kingdoms. When Daenerys says that Rhaenys is her family and that, of course, she will be treated as the Princess she is, Jon Connington swears allegiance to her and says that the Golden Company is hers to command. Most of them are exiles who just want to return home and are more than happy to serve her if it means they will have a place in the new world she will build._

_Daenerys looks into their eyes and read their intentions. She realizes they are sincere – or, at least, they believe what they're saying (she has learnt, after what had happened with Arya, not to trust in her ability too much. She will keep an eye on them) – and accepts them into her council._

_Some time passes and Daenerys and Rhaenys bond. Rhaenys had a difficult childhood, almost as difficult as Daenerys. She certainly didn't grow up in luxury like she was supposed to as a Princess of the Seven Kingdoms. Rhaenys is fierce and determined, with a strong sense of justice. Daenerys likes her very much. One day she brings Rhaenys to meet her dragons, hoping she will bond with either Rhaegal or Viserion. Not only she knows that a dragon with a rider is safer but there's also the fact that there's a small part of her that still doubts that Rhaenys is really her niece. Rhaenys becoming a dragonrider will assuage all her doubts. To her great pleasure and relief, that's exactly what happens. Rhaenys bonds with Viserion, becoming his rider. Daenerys chooses Rhaenys as her heir after that, the obvious choice._

_When Rhaenys hears that Quentyn Martell – her cousin, though she has never met him – is still in Meereen, and still hoping to secure a marriage with Daenerys – especially now that Hizdhar is dead – she offers herself up as a substitute. Daenerys asks if she's really sure. She doesn't want to force her into a marriage if she doesn't want it, only to secure an alliance. Rhaenys is sure. The Martells are her kin, her mother was one, but she's never seen Dorne. She wouldn't mind spending the rest of her days as a Princess of Dorne. Quentyn is not of a malicious nature, she's not afraid he would harm her, and even if he tried, Rhaenys can defend herself very well (Rhaenys joined Arya and Daenerys in their daily trainings, though, growing up with a man who became Captain of the Golden Company and being of Dornish and Dragon blood, she learnt how to fight since she was little). She's not of a romantic nature, she's not searching for love in a marriage (though she likes sex – she has Dornish blood after all). Daenerys sees that Rhaenys is sure of her decision so she calls for Quentyn and proposes the marriage alliance. Quentyn accepts. The alliance with Dorne is made._

_At Castle Black, Maester Aemon receives regular news of Daenerys through Samwell Tarly (who reads to him letters about her). Upon hearing the stories about Daenerys, he becomes convinced that Daenerys is the princess that was promised, as proven by the dragons. He's convinced that Daenerys is their last hope against the Others._

_When he hears that she freed Slaver's Bay and now has renamed it the Bay of Dragons, he realizes that this is the perfect opportunity to seek her help, convinced she would help them like she helped the slaves in Essos. He speaks to Jon Snow, the new Lord Commander, about it but Jon, though respectful of the old Maester, thinks Aemon's idea is just a fanciful notion influenced by his blood relation to her. In fact, Jon wonders sarcastically why a Queen a world away, with a Kingdom of her own, would ever come there to help them on the words of a relative she has never met when the rest of the Seven Kingdoms never did._

_Maester Aemon is undaunted by Jon's reaction. He asks Jon permission to sail to Essos with Samwell Tarly to go speak with Daenerys. Jon is doubtful but he concedes, thinking that, if there's even a small chance of Daenerys helping them, they could at least try. But he won't hold his breath. Aemon, Sam, Gilly and Little Sam sails from Eastwatch for Braavos._

_Another few months pass and the Free Cities are really free. Slavery is abolished all over Essos, Qarth and New Ghis included. In every city from the Free Cities to Qarth the flag with the three-headed dragon of House Targaryen waves high in the air. The Dragon Alliance is formed._

_Daenerys may be Queen of Dragons' Bay (which now includes the newly rebuilt Valyria - who has already people living in it - and the cities of Mantarys, Tolos and Elyria) but the new rulers of the Free Cities and Qarth are her allies now._

_Daenerys' army surpasses 120'000 men plus all the non-fighters in her khalasar who will want to come with her to Westeros like the wives and children of her Dothraki fighters. She doesn't have enough ships to bring all of them to Westeros, at least for now. Though the fleet she has taken from the Masters certainly help, she needs probably 1200 ships. Nobody has these many ships, not even if she asks Astapor and Yunkai to borrow their entire fleets. The only solution is to build them but it would take time for it (and for that she plans to take the wood necessary from the trees in the great forest of the Kingdom of the Ifequevron). Daenerys resigns herself to wait yet another year to finally reach Westeros. In the meantime, she would continue to rule Meereen and help the ex-slaves in the Free Cities in any way she can. She has waited as long as she did, she can wait a little more._

_Aemon and Sam arrive in Braavos. The journey was too long and hard for Aemon. He's dying. He can't go further. He asks Sam to go in his place to speak with the Queen._

_After months at sea, Sam reaches Meereen. He asks an audience with the Queen and tells him about Aemon (without telling him why they're really there). He also tells Daenerys that, unfortunately, Aemon has no long left._

_Daenerys hops on Drogon to speak with Aemon. The meeting is bittersweet. Aemon tells Daenerys about the White Walkers. Daenerys believes him, not only because it's him that's telling her but also because of her dreams and Kinvara's word._

_Aemon dies but Daenerys is there, in his last moments. Daenerys returns to Meereen after that, intent on going to Westeros as soon as possible._

_It's the fifth month of the year 302 AC. From Astapor the first batch of Fortified Wine ready to sell is sent as a gift to the Queen. After many experiments, the Astapori finally found the perfect blend of grapes (6 to be exact) to use to produce white wine. But they went even further by trying to produce Fortified Wine, by adding brandy (made by distilling traditional Ghiscari wine - which is, ironically, perfect for both distillation and aging - and aged 2 years) to the fermenting must. After aging for one year, it's ready. When Tyrion - the real expert on wine among them - tries it, he says that he's similar to the strongwine from Dorne (though that one is red) but even better. It could even compete with the Arbor Gold from the Reach in quality, though it has a different taste. It's sweet but strong. The Astapori named it Stormwine in honour of Daenerys._

_In Lys, Edric Storm – the bastard son of Robert Baratheon and Delena Florent – has heard rumours of the Dragon Queen, Daenerys Targaryen. He decides he wants to meet her, because he's made aware of the fact that she will soon sail to Westeros. Edric wants to return home but both Stannis and the Lannisters will never let him. The Lannisters wants him dead because he's one of the few bastards of Robert Baratheon left alive and Stannis had already wanted to kill him before, thanks to the Red Priestess Melisandre, and now that he's escaped thanks to Davos Seaworth, Stannis' Hand, returning to Storm's End is out of the question._

_Ser Andrew Estermont doesn't agree, saying that the Dragon Queen will kill him as soon as she sees him just because he's Robert's son and that they shouldn't trust a Targaryen anyway, let alone swear allegiance to her, not after what happened between House Baratheon and House Targaryen. Ser Gerald Gower agrees with Ser Andrew while Omer Blackberry, Triston of Tally Hill and Lewys the Fishwife think that an alliance with the Dragon Queen would be beneficial to them. They could ask for Edric to be legitimized and to be made Lord of the Stormlands, and in exchange the Stormlands will sworn allegiance to her as their rightful Queen. With Daenerys' army and dragons, they could take Storm's End very quickly. Already Stannis' influence on the Lords of the Stormlands is lessening because of his blind faith to Melisandre. He had to pay for a sellswords' company because he lost most of his men at the Battle of the Blackwater. Against Daenerys he won't pose much of a threat._

_After much discussion, they finally agree to go to Meereen and, at least, go and meet the Queen._

_Yara Greyjoy of the Iron Islands has rescued Theon from Ramsey's tortures. After escaping Winterfell together, they reach Pyke but there, there's a bad surprise waiting for them. Their father has been assassinated by Euron Greyjoy, Balon's brother._

_Euron Greyjoy wins the Kingsmoot against Yara and is named the new King of the Iron Islands. Instead of Balon's pointless raids on the coast or his niece Yara's plans for diplomacy and consolidation, Euron announces his intention to conquer all of the Seven Kingdoms, by allying with Daenerys Targaryen. Fleeing the Kingsmoot, Yara and Theon Greyjoy steal much of the Iron Fleet with the captains that remained loyal to them, and set out east hoping to reach Daenerys in Meereen before Euron can._

_Edric Storm arrives in Meereen and after a rather tense meeting, in which both parties hash out their opposing stances regarding the Rebellion and the faults of both Robert Baratheon, and Rhaegar and Aerys, they finally come to an agreement. Edric swears allegiance to Queen Daenerys, in exchange for his legitimization and his appointment as Lord of Storm's End and the Stormlands. When Daenerys will finally sail to Westeros, Edric, together with his own men and with Jon Connington and the Golden Company (with the elephants), will have to conquer the castles of Griffin's Roost (who will go to Jon Connington) and Storm's End. Only then Daenerys will legitimize him and make him the Lord of the castle he would have conquered._

_A few days later, Daenerys and her advisors meet with Yara and Theon Greyjoy who just arrived in Meereen. Yara offers to provide one hundred ships to Daenerys (with enough men to sail them) if, in return, she helps them defeat their uncle Euron Greyjoy and recognizes the independence of the Iron Islands. Arya wants to kill Theon as soon as she sees him but Theon explains that he didn't kill Bran and Rickon, though he did things just as bad. Still, Daenerys convinces her to allow Theon to prove that he's sorry and to make up for his actions. Arya agrees reluctantly (Arya knows Dany is big on second chances, though after a second chance is been given and they failed it, Dany doesn't forgive). Dany accepts Yara's offer of an alliance and claims that both of their fathers left the world worse than they found it, but Daenerys and Yara are going to leave it better than they found it. She demands that Yara recognize her claim to queenship of the Seven Kingdoms and tells her, "No more reaving, roving, raiding, or raping." Yara protests this is the Ironborns' way of life but Daenerys is firm. Yara agrees to her terms, and the two Queens make a pact._

_Some time later Daenerys - and therefore Quentyn - is made aware of the death of Prince Doran, Arianne Martell, Trystane Martell and Myrcella Baratheon in Sunspear. It seems that Cersei, convinced her daughter was in danger in Dorne, sent some men to retrieve her. In the fight that ensued between Lannister men and Dornishmen, all the people mentioned above were killed. Now Quentyn is the legitimate ruler of Dorne, and also the last legitimate Martell left. It's a difficult pill to swallow for Quentyn and he makes him really hate the Lannisters. Before, it was about doing what his father expected of him but his antipathy towards the Lannisters wasn't personal because he had never met Elia or her children. Now it's different. He wants to destroy Cersei Lannister._

_Daenerys figures out a plan to both get rid of Euron Greyjoy – who she learns, possesses Dragonbinder, a horn capable of enslaving dragons to its will – and getting more ships faster._

_She sends Euron a letter, saying that she took Yara and Theon prisoner, after they showed up wanting to make an alliance with her. She tells Euron that she heard he wanted to make an alliance with her. She flatters him, telling him that she heard stories about him, of all the places he sailed, of him visiting Valyria, of how he took control of the Iron Islands. Daenerys respects strength and she needs a strong man at her side. Euron is that man. She also needs ships to sail to Westeros and she heard that Euron has an enormous fleet. If Euron can help her take back the Seven Kingdoms, she will make him her King._

_Euron, the arrogant man that he is, takes the bait. He sails to Essos with his armada. Daenerys dines him and flatters his ego. Euron is taken with her, pleased to know that the rumors about Daenerys’ beauty were true. (‘I’ve always dreamed of marrying the most beautiful woman in the world’). Then she brings him to meet her dragons, saying that her dragons will know if she can trust him._

_Once outside the city – some of Dany's men and Euron's men follow them – Dany brings him to her children's nest. Only Drogon is there. Her men attack the Ironborns on her command. Euron uses the Dragonbinder. It seems to work but Daenerys is quicker. She kills him before he can really give an order to her dragons (though Drogon, whom she has the strongest bond with, tries to fight the effect of the horn). The Ironborns with Euron die, killed by her men and her dragons._

_Once back to the pyramid, Daenerys and Yara meet with the rest of the Ironborns, saying that they can either follow Yara and recognize her as Queen or share in Euron's fate. Daenerys tells the Ironborns that Euron tried to attack her and steal the dragons for himself but that a dragon is not a slave and therefore he got what he deserved. The Ironborns kneel to their new Queen – Yara._

**_-In Westeros_ **

_It's the year 303 AC. At the Wall, not long after Aemon and Sam sailed to Essos, Jon organizes an expedition to Hardhome to bring the Wildings south of the Wall with Stannis' fleet. (Stannis is dead, defeated by the Boltons with his army). Jon, thanks to Tormund's help, manages to convince most of the Wildings to follow him south. (The Night King still attacks them but Jon arrives earlier than canon TV show to bring them south of the Wall and manages to convince them to go on the ships much sooner, therefore more people survive than in TV show canon)._

_Jon returns to the Wall. The Wildings are sent to 'man' the abandoned castles at the Wall. It's only a temporary solution though. Jon plans to give them land in the North eventually. Once the threat from the Boltons has been dealt with._

_Jon is murdered by his brothers. Davos convinces Melisandre to try and resurrect him. Jon comes back to life after three days and hangs the men who killed him._

_Not long after that, Jon receives the visit of Howland Reed, together with Maege Mormont and Ser Wylis Manderly. They bring him the will of Robb Stark, the late King in the North. In the will, Robb named Jon his heir and made him a true Stark. Jon is a little overwhelmed but that's not all he finds out._

_Howland Reed tells him the truth about his parentage. Both Maege and Ser Wylis know about Jon but they support him anyway. Jon is, of course, filled with many emotions (shock, anger, denial, sadness etc) but he needs to put that aside for the moment because he needs to think about the Army of the Dead, that's his main priority at the moment._

_In the meantime, the situation in the North has changed._

_Sansa Stark, after fleeing King's Landing after Joffrey's death, had been brought to Littlefinger in the Vale, to her aunt Lysa Arryn, under disguise as his bastard daughter. After a time, and after Littlefinger murders Lysa – though he makes it seem like he was protecting Sansa – she and Littlefinger reveal her real identity to the Vale Lords. Littlefinger convinces Sansa to marry Sweetrobin so that she will be able to get control of the Vale and retake Winterfell and the North. (For the sake of this story Robin is 15. Don't know how old he is in the show)._

_Sansa marries him and is able to get a child with him, a male heir. In the meantime, Littlefinger, with Sansa's complicity, is slowly poisoning Robin Arryn. Finally he dies and Sansa has now full control of the Vale. She calls the banners to march North and take back Winterfell._

_Sansa manages to gather the support of most of the Northern Lords (except for those who bent the knee to Jon and recognized him as their King), except for those loyal to the Boltons like the Umbers and Karstarks._

_Ramsey, thinking Sansa had only the support of the Northern Lords, which hadn't much of an army left, and having no idea she had also the Vale at her side, meets her on the field. There he has a bad surprise. Unfortunately Rickon is killed. Ramsey wanted to use him as bait for Sansa but Sansa doesn't fall for it. Sansa takes back her home and kills Ramsey. She's now named Queen in the North._

_Jon, hearing that Sansa has retaken Winterfell, leaves the Wall with the other Northern lords loyal to him, Davos, Tormund and a few other Wildings. He hopes to convince Sansa to help him prepare for the White Walkers and to allow the Wildings to establish themselves in the Gift._

_At first their reunion is warm and Jon thinks that things are finally going his way. He doesn't care about the fact that Robb technically made him his heir and that, therefore, the Northern crown should be his. After all, he's not even a Stark._

_But Sansa, with Littlefinger whispering in her ear, starts to doubt Jon's motives. Jon starts to tell her 'fantastic' stories about the Night King and the Army of the Dead and now he wants the Wildings in the North. Then he also tells her that he died and was brought back to life. Sansa starts to believe Littlefinger's words that Jon wants the Northern crown for himself, that he wants to use the Wildings to take Winterfell and the North away from her. When Littlefinger finds out about Robb's will and reports it to Sansa, Sansa accuses Jon to his face._

_Jon, naively, tells her the truth about his parents. Sansa falsely smiles at him and tells him she believes him. Instead, she convenes the Northern Lords in the Great Hall to reveal Jon's parentage and publicly accuses him of wanting to take Winterfell. She also says that Jon is a deserter who broke his vows to the Night's Watch and that she's duty-bound to take his head. However, since he's still her family, she will be merciful and allow him to leave the North and never return. The Wildlings will return North of the Wall where they belong or they will be executed. Ser Wylis, Maege and Howland Reed wants to say something in his defense but Jon shakes his head and stops them. He leaves Winterfell, having being betrayed once again by his own family (he considered his brothers at the Night's Watch his family as well). Having no other choice, he takes what's left of Stannis' fleet and he sails, together with Davos and the Wildings he saved to Meereen, hoping Daenerys Targaryen is really the hope Aemon was convinced she was._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanted to clarify one thing about Sansa's betrayal. Some people will probably think that was out of character for her but I don't think so. The same exact thing happened in season7 with Arya. Sansa was almost ready to kill her own sister; if she hadn't asked Bran, she would probably have. And the reason why she asked Bran, was because she didn't trust Littlefinger after he sold her to the Boltons.
> 
> Now, this situation is different. This is a Sansa who wasn't sold to the Boltons. Instead, Littlefinger said that, if she'd married Sweetrobin, she would eventually get control of the Vale and with that she could have taken back Winterfell and the North, that the Northern Lords would have supported her and they would have seen her as the Liberator of the North or whatever. That she would become Queen of the North. And everything that Littlefinger said would happen, actually happened. Sure, she wasn't happy in her marriage to Robin but she knew that that was part of the deal. She didn't expect to be and she was ready to bear it. (I imagine Catelyn told her something like this when she was younger, that a woman needed to bear the attentions of her husband and that her greatest joy would have been her children. I remember a passage in the books, I think the first time we see Catelyn's POV when she's basically making her mind wonder, she's obviously not enjoying Ned's attentions very much or she would have been very much in the moment). After all, Robin wasn't Ramsey. He didn't torture her or hurt her, he was little more than a child, a teenager who didn't really know what he was doing. 
> 
> So she was prepared for the marriage and she knew it wouldn't last long anyway because Littlefinger, with a knowing Sansa, was planning to poison him. Sansa just needed to bear a male heir first. And, once again, that's what happened.
> 
> Therefore, when Jon showed up, with an army of Wildings, telling her stories impossible to believe and with Robb's Will that made Jon his heir, and Littlefinger starts to tell her that Jon wants to take Winterfell away from her, she believes it because she trusts Littlefinger's ability to judge people and their motives, she trusts Littlefinger's ability to 'play the game'. And, of course, she also remembers what Catelyn used to say about Jon, that one day he will come back and try to take Winterfell for himself and away from its legitimate owners.
> 
> Hope you'll agree with me on my interpretation of Sansa's character, though I have to admit I'm biased because I hate Sansa. Still, this is not for Sansa fans anyway, I said that in the tags. However, this Sansa is not pure evil and she's not even as evil as Cersei, just very manipulative and scheming. She has her own motives and reasons and she's basically just looking out for herself and her interests (and those of her child as well). I promise, this won't have Sansa bashing. I actually like my characters with layers, even the ones I don't like.


	5. Arya I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you go, the first real chapter, finally, from Arya's POV. Hope you like it!

****

**Arya I**

Daenerys lunged forward with her left arm but Arya parried her attack with ease. Daenerys was expecting that because she retreated a few steps on quick feet before bending her left leg forward and extending the right one. Daenerys moved her left arm in an arch, trying to hit Arya's legs and incapacitate her this way. Arya jumped in the air at the last moment to avoid the attack. She crouched on the ground and rolled away before standing up quickly.

They went on like this for long minutes, parrying the other's attack, trying to counterattack when it was possible. But they were evenly matched, at least when it came to sword-fighting in the Braavosi style. They were both using their left hands, seeing the necessity of being able to use a sword with either hand.

If Daenerys ever decided to use her double swords against her though, Arya knew she was no match for her. Probably nobody was, except maybe her brother.

 _Jon_. Even at 15, he had been better than most people twice his age. He was much better than Robb, though he always had to hide his abilities from everyone because of her mother. Arya wouldn't be surprised if he had become the best swordsman in the Seven Kingdoms by now. It was one of the reasons there were so many speculations about his mother being Ashara Dayne. They thought him related to the famed Sword of the Morning. Ned had never said though. He had brought the secret to his grave.

Arya wondered how he was. The last she had heard of him, he had been elected Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. Arya had been proud of him for that. She had always known her brother was made for more than what his name had decided for him. How she missed him. She hoped that, when they would finally sail to Westeros, and after Daenerys had taken her throne and Arya had finally avenged her family, that she could go to the Wall to visit him. She was sure Daenerys would allow that.

A nick on her arm brought her back to reality.

"You're distracted." Daenerys said. It wasn't a question. Her lilac eyes shined with her worry, a slight frown marring her beautiful face. Arya sometimes wondered if Daenerys looked more like Visenya had looked or Rhaenys. Maybe she looked like a mixture of both. She certainly was a blend of both in personality. Or at least, how she imagined Visenya and Rhaenys had been like. Daenerys was fierce and brave, an excellent fighter like Visenya had been, but she could also be sweet and amiable like Rhaenys, poised and elegant, though not much taller than Arya herself was.

"It's nothing." Arya replied before sighing.

The two of them stopped in unison, realizing they were done for the day. They passed a canteen filled with water between them before going to sit on the shade of an olive tree, on a wooden bench. The sun was high in the sky and soon it was time for Daenerys to 'play the Queen', as Arya called it, and meet the many petitioners, eager for an audience with the Breaker of Chains.

To everyone else in Essos, or almost everyone at least, Daenerys was the Dragon Queen, the Mother of Dragons, more a mythical figure than a real woman. A Goddess among men. But to Arya, she was just Dany. In fact, Arya was one of only a handful of people that could call Daenerys that.

To think that the Faceless Men had sent Arya to Meereen to kill her. And now, there she was, one of Daenerys' closest advisors.

To tell the truth, for Arya it was more than that. Daenerys was the older sister she had always wished she had growing up. The sister who would share her interests in sword-fighting and archery, the sister who didn't judge her for wanting to do 'unlady' like things, who didn't call her 'horse-face', who didn't mock her poor attempts at embroidery. The sister who was beautiful, confident and sophisticated like Sansa had always wished she could be but also warm and gentle, who treated everyone with respect and grace, no matter if they were nobles or peasants, trueborn or bastardborn. And, of course, Daenerys was also much more than that. She was a dragonrider, like Visenya had been. She had conquered cities and freed slaves. She was a Queen who lead armies, not a spoiled princess who couldn't do anything on her own, like she was sure Sansa would have been.

She felt a little ashamed to think that of Sansa. But Arya and Sansa had never gotten along. They were just too different.

Sansa, who had wanted to marry Joffrey and become Queen, Sansa who would always play at being a lady while all Arya wanted to do was learn how to use a sword like Jon, Robb and Theon. She had wished she could participate in Ser Rodrick's lessons but her father had always forbidden it. And Catelyn hadn't even wanted to hear of it. Only when Arya had followed her father south, he had allowed her to receive lessons from Syrio Forel, the First Sword of Braavos. But Syrio was dead, like her mother, her father, her brother, and probably the rest of her family too, except for Jon. Jon, who had been the only one who had accepted Arya for whom she really was. Jon, who had gifted Arya with a sword, Needle. A sword she had been unable to separate with when she had started her training in the House of the Black and White. The House that had brought her to Daenerys.

"I know that look, Arya. You're thinking about your brother." Daenerys said, not one to be deterred. "You know, with all that you told me about him, I really wish I could meet him. Though after what Uncle Aemon told me, I probably will, whether I will want to or not."

Arya had almost forgotten about that. The White Walkers, the Army of the Dead. She remembered Old Nan's stories about them. About the Long Night and a Winter that seemed would never end. She had liked to hear those kinds of stories, from inside the warm walls of Winterfell, liked being afraid of horror stories because she was safe and loved, inside her home, with her family.

But If they were really true then, what did it mean for their plans? What did it mean for Daenerys' plans for Westeros and Arya's plans to avenge her family?

"What do you think of that?" Daenerys echoed her thoughts.

Arya shrugged. "I don't know. Nobody thought those stories were actually true. Not even my father. And yet, if your uncle came from the other side of the world, old as he was, just to warn you about it, then they must be true. And Samwell Tarly swore he killed one, didn't he?"

Daenerys nodded. "I had dreams about them, I think." Arya knew what she was referring to. Daenerys' dragon dreams, as she called them. Arya remembered from her lessons that it was thanks to one of those dreams that the Targaryens had survived the Doom. "Of beings with terrifying blue eyes and looking like they were made of ice and snow, everything freezing underneath their steps."

Arya felt a cold shiver of foreboding going down her spine at Daenerys' words. It was a stark contrast to the warm, humid air of Meereen.

Before she could think further on the topic, through one of the archway that surrounded the courtyard Arya and Dany usually trained in, in one of the highest levels of the Pyramid, came Princess Rhaenys, running and out of breath.

"Dany!" She screamed, cheeks red and sweat on her face – for being a Princess, Rhaenys sure didn't act like one –, before noticing the Unsullied guards standing immobile and silent as statues all around them, and amending, "I mean, your Grace. I was at the docks, walking with Prince Quentyn and making sure that the preparations for our imminent voyage to Westeros are proceeding as they should when I saw a fleet approaching."

"A fleet?" Daenerys asked and Arya knew what she was thinking. Was it one of the former Masters leading this fleet? Did they hire yet another sellsword company in a desperate attempt to take back the city from Daenerys? After the last time and Daenerys' show of power, Arya wondered how could anyone be so stupid or suicidal to try.

"Yes, Daenerys. A fleet bearing a wolf sigil."

Arya's heart skipped a beat at hearing Rhaenys' words. A wolf? Was it possible that someone in her family had survived after all. She would even be happy if that person was Sansa.

"A wolf? You mean, a Stark banner." Daenerys asked rhetorically before turning to look at Arya with a raised eyebrow, wanting to see her reaction. Arya wasn't sure how she was supposed to react.

Before she could say anything, though she had no idea what she would have said anyway, Rhaenys continued. "Yes, your Grace. Though it's a reverted Stark banner. A white wolf on a grey field."

Arya gasped. There was only one person who could be. "Jon!" Arya shouted before starting to run in the direction of the docks.

"Arya, wait!" Daenerys called out from behind her. In any other circumstances Arya would have listened and not only because Daenerys was the Queen. But not this time.

Jon was here, in Meereen. Arya didn't know why and, at the moment, she didn't even particularly care. All that mattered was that he was here.

After witnessing her own father being beheaded, after hearing of Bran and Rickon's death at the Ironborns' hands (though that turned out to be a lie), and then seeing her brother Robb's body being paraded around on his horse, the head of his direwolf sewn to his neck, and then having heard of her mother's death as well, she had thought she had lost all the family she had. Sansa was a hostage of the Lannisters and then she had vanished as well. And Jon was alive but unreachable, at the Wall.

She had been alone. That was why she had sailed to Braavos. Because she had nothing left. Only her revenge. But she wasn't that girl full of anger and hatred anymore. Not after meeting Daenerys. Not after staying in Meereen and seeing how she still could help people, that there was more to life than her list. Daenerys had saved her in more ways than one. Daenerys had become her family when she had no family left. Thanks to Daenerys, she had returned to be Arya Stark after losing pieces of herself all over Westeros, because of every death she had been a witness to.

And now Jon was here as well. The two most important people in her life, her favourite brother and her sister in all but blood, both in the same place, at the same time. Arya didn't particularly believe in destiny, but she couldn't help but think that there was something almost fated about this. She only wondered how the two of them would react to each other.

Arya ran down flights of stairs, without stopping, avoiding servants and soldiers alike, ignoring Tyrion's questions and Varys' unsettling gaze, Theon's cowering and Yara's swagger. She ignored all the people she met on the way. She had only one destination in mind. The arbor, and Jon.


	6. Rhaenys I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I knew you were expecting the meeting between Jon and Dany in this chapter, or at the very least, the reunion between Jon and Arya, so sorry to disappoint you but I needed to have this chapter out of the way first, there are some things which are important that I needed to write. Hope you like it, anyway.

****

**Rhaenys I**

Rhaenys watched Arya Stark running through the archway and then disappearing out of sight and shrugged her shoulders.

"I gather the fleet belongs to her _favourite brother_." She said to Daenerys, unable to suppress completely the mockery in her tone.

"So, it would seem." Daenerys replied before turning to her Unsullied guards and speaking with them in Valyrian. She sent them to follow Arya, discretely, to make sure she was safe and that those ships really belonged to Jon Snow. If they did indeed belong to the Bastard of Winterfell, they were tasked to escort Jon's party to the Great Pyramid. Both Daenerys and Rhaenys knew Arya could defend herself perfectly well but Rhaenys could understand Daenerys' caution.

Rhaenys' relationship with Arya was better now, mostly because neither of them wanted to displease Daenerys, but it was still difficult. When they had first met each other, Rhaenys had blamed Arya's family for what had happened during the Rebellion, for her father abandoning her mother for Arya's aunt, leaving Elia, Rhaenys and Aegon at the mercy of the Mad King, and Arya had blamed Rhaegar for supposedly kidnapping and raping her aunt.

Daenerys hadn't wanted to hear of it, of course. First, she didn't believe her brother would kidnap and rape a girl, especially the daughter of a lord, because it went against everything she had ever heard about her brother. Though she still admitted that Rhaegar's actions had been stupid, reckless and disrespectful towards not only Elia and their children but to the entirety of Dorne. In fact, she had said, Rhaegar was much more to blame than Lyanna had been. Lyanna had been 15 when she had run off with Rhaegar, and wanting to escape a marriage she didn't want. Rhaegar had been the adult, Rhaegar had been the one already married and with children. He should have been the one to know better.

Rhaenys didn't like to think of her father in those terms but Daenerys was right. It wasn't fair to blame only Lyanna Stark for what had happened. Still, she hated the way the North and the Usurper had turned Lyanna into some kind of poor, innocent victim and Rhaegar as the villainous prince slain by the heroic Baratheon. But history was always written by the winners.

Daenerys' greatest argument against their 'feud', however, had been that she didn't believe in blaming a child for the sins of their parents – or any other member of their family. Arya wasn't Lyanna, and Rhaenys wasn't Rhaegar, just like Daenerys wasn't the Mad King. They were all allies now and they all had the same enemy in common, therefore they needed to work together and leave the past where it belonged, in the past.

It was difficult to contradict such a logical argument and therefore, from that moment on, they had tried to get along as best they could. Still, Rhaenys respected Arya and she even liked her now. They weren't really all that different, after all.

"Your Grace. Princess Rhaenys." The voice of Tyrion Lannister interrupted their solitude and they both turned in his direction. Tyrion bowed to both women and Rhaenys suppressed an instinctual sneer. Rhaenys liked Tyrion Lannister well enough, but she couldn't help but distrust him nonetheless. He was a Lannister. Wasn't that enough reason to distrust him? She wondered how Daenerys could have him in her council. It was one thing to spare his life and another one to allow him to advise her.

Daenerys' argument was always the same though. Tyrion wasn't his father, or his brother, or his sister. As far as they knew, he wasn't really guilty of anything more than bearing the last name Lannister. Except for killing his own father, which would usually be a terrible crime – becoming a kinslayer. And yet, neither Rhaenys, nor Daenerys, could really blame him for it.

"Yes, Lord Tyrion?" Daenerys asked him politely.

"Forgive me, my Queen, but I saw Lady Stark running out of the pyramid like she was being chased by demons from the seven Hells. Has something happened?" He looked worried, expecting some kind of bad news she imagined. Rhaenys couldn't exactly blame him for that.

Daenerys had brought peace and prosperity to Essos but the Masters, while defeated, were not really gone. And they still harbored a deep-seated hatred towards the Mother of Dragons.

"Nothing bad has happened, I assure you. It seems we'll be having a visitor soon. One you might be acquainted with? Jon Snow?"

Tyrion widened his eyes and then smiled. "Oh, the bastard of Winterfell. Yes, I do know him. I met him at Winterfell when Robert Baratheon went North to ask Ned Stark to be his Hand and then later, we shared the road leading to the Wall. He's a good lad, honorable like his father, though a little broody and a bit naïve. But what he is doing here? Last I heard, he had been named Lord of Commander of the Night's Watch."

"Your guess is as good as mine. However, I wonder if it is the same reason why my uncle and Samwell Tarly came to Essos to see me."

"Ah, the White Walkers. The Army of the Dead. Lord Commander Mormont seemed convinced they were real as well. As much as I find such a thing hard to believe, proofs of their existence are piling up, are they not?"

"Quite true. Though I can't help but wonder why the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch would bother to come in person and leave his post."

"Perhaps I can answer that, my Queen." Lord Varys joined them, the sweet perfume he always wore following his every step. He bowed to both Daenerys and Rhaenys like Tyrion before him and then turned his attention completely towards Daenerys. Rhaenys wasn't offended. She knew Varys didn't care much for her as a person. She was simply another piece in his game of Cyvasse. She had been useful because she had been fundamental in gaining Daenerys' trust when they had first been received in the Great Pyramid. And she was useful now because of her impending marriage to Quentyn Martell, the new ruler of Dorne. But, other than that, for Varys' political games, she was rather uninteresting. She also knew that, the only reason Varys had saved her life and smuggled her out of King's Landing was to have a third option in case neither Viserys or Daenerys – the only Targaryens whose identity couldn't be disproved – would prove themselves as unfit rulers.

"Oh? Did your little birds told you something I might be interested in?" Daenerys raised her left eyebrow in challenge, her gaze hard. She was in full Dragon Queen mode at the moment.

Daenerys might have forgiven Varys for serving the Usurper and for trying to kill her and her baby when she had been married to Khal Drogo, but she didn't forget. And Varys knew it.

But Rhaenys also knew that Varys wasn't put out by Daenerys' mistrust. In fact, she would be willing to bet that Varys respected Daenerys even more for that. Only a fool would give unconditional trust to a man who had tried to kill her and her baby still in the womb. And Daenerys was a lot of things, but she wasn't a fool.

"Yes, my Queen. I have received some interesting news from the North. It seems Lady Sansa Stark, after escaping the capital during Joffrey's wedding and untimely death, sought refuge in the Vale, to her aunt Lysa Arryn. She then married her cousin, Robin Arryn, and the union produced a male heir. However, both Lysa and her son Robin are dead, though I was unable to find out exactly _how_ they died. And now Sansa, after taking Winterfell and the North back from the Boltons, is Queen of the North _and_ the Vale."

Daenerys' icy look turned surprised. That was certainly unexpected. And it would certainly disrupt Daenerys' plan to put Arya Stark as Lady of Winterfell and Warden of the North. However, maybe they weren't such bad news? Sansa and Arya were sisters and Sansa _was_ the legitimate heir to Ned Stark. The North belonged to her. And now the Vale, after marrying Robin Arryn and giving him an heir. And she hated Cersei as much as they did. Maybe they could form an alliance that could satisfy both parties.

"That is very interesting. But how is Jon Snow, the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, connected to all of this?"

"I've heard some odd rumors about Jon Snow, your Grace. I don't know how much if any of it is true but…well…"

Daenerys rolled her eyes at Varys' need to raise suspense. "Well? Get on with it. I still have to wash up and get ready to greet the petitioners and my guests."

Varys bowed again. "Of course, my Queen. I live to serve." Rhaenys saw Daenerys suppress another eye-roll and lowered her head to hide a grin. "It seems that Jon Snow allowed the Wildings south of the Wall, to protect them from some great danger." And with that, he sent a very pointed look in Daenerys' direction. "His brothers of the Night's Watch weren't happy about that, as you can imagine. It appears there was a mutiny. The reports are confused about this. Some swear that Jon Snow did indeed die and was then resurrected, others that he simply survived the attack. Still, there was a mutiny, that is certain. And this mutiny is what prompted him to leave the Wall and the Night's Watch and seek refuge in Winterfell, to his sister."

"If he found refuge in Winterfell, then why is he here?" Daenerys asked and Rhaenys was wondering the same thing.

Varys sighed, and added, with fake reluctance. "I swear to you, my Queen, that what I'm about to reveal is only what I heard, nothing more. I can't say if there's any truth to it or not."

"Yes, yes…" Daenerys said, waving a hand in her impatience.

"Robb Stark made Jon Snow his heir, and not Sansa Stark. So, technically, the North belongs to him. Sansa wasn't happy to find this out and…well, she banished him from the North. But that is not the strangest information yet. It seems that…that Jon Snow is not really Ned Stark's bastard son. It seems he's your brother's son, your Grace. Rhaegar's son with Lyanna Stark. Ned Stark found Lyanna in Dorne, bleeding and dying of birthing fever and he took her son and raised him as his own bastard to protect him from Robert Baratheon."

Rhaenys gasped in shock and she was sure she must have paled as well. She had a brother? A brother, son of the woman her father had left her mother for? Rhaenys didn't know what to feel. In fact, her first instinct was to deny it all. "It's impossible." She whispered.

Varys ignored her and looked at Daenerys instead. Unlike what she was expecting, Daenerys looked more pensive than surprised.

Then she asked a question that appeared totally random. "Tell me, Lord Varys, the crown my brother gave to Lyanna Stark at Harrenhal, what type of flowers was it made of?"

Lord Varys frowned a little in confusion but answered all the same. "Winter roses, your Grace."

"Yes…" Daenerys said, her gaze distant. "And what colour are winter roses?"

"Blue, your Grace."

Rhaenys watched in astonishment as Daenerys' eyes filled with tears and a big smile crossed her lips. "It's _him_. _He_ 's the blue flower. Of course, it must be him. It makes so much sense." And then, she added, always whispering to herself, " _the dragon must have three heads_. Is that what you were trying to tell me, Rhaegar?"

Rhaenys had no idea what Daenerys was talking about, and both Tyrion and Varys seemed confused as well. Rhaenys sometimes wondered if Daenerys had, in fact, inherited her own particular form of Targaryen madness. Though she would never dare to say that out loud.

Still smiling a little like a lunatic, Daenerys clapped her hands once and said, "Rhaenys, would you like to help me get ready for our guests? There's a crimson dress, made by my seamstresses, of Meereenese silk, that I'm just dying to wear."

"Of course, Dany." Rhaenys replied without thinking.

Daenerys smiled at her with all the sweetness of a mother looking at her favourite child. There was sadness and compassion in her eyes that Rhaenys realized was for her, because Daenerys understood how much more difficult finding out about Jon Snow was for her than for Daenerys. Rhaenys loved her for that. In fact, Rhaenys loved Daenerys for a lot of reasons. Mostly they were the same reasons why so many people followed her and served her and loved her and adored her.

They were just about to leave the courtyard, arm in arm, when Daenerys turned to look behind her shoulder at Varys.

"Don't think I haven't realized that you've been sitting on this news for a while, Lord Varys. Remember what I told you, if you even think about betraying me…"

Rhaenys saw Varys visibly swallow at the reminder that he would be burnt alive if he only dared to try and betray Daenerys and she smirked.

Varys was loyal to Daenerys, or as loyal as a man such as himself could be. And he respected her and he even admired her. But he was also terrified of her. And with good reason. Daenerys was benevolent and kind with her allies and the people under her protection, but with her enemies…well, her wrath was something no sane man would want visited on themselves.


	7. Jon I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There you go! New chapter and this one is from Jon's POV. Next one is Tyrion's (though it won't be the meeting between Jon and Dany). The next one after that will be from Dany's POV and it will have the Jonerys meeting. Hope you like this chapter, tell me what you think!

 

**Jon I**

The long moons at sea had taken a toll on him and the men that accompanied him, except for Davos, who looked perfectly comfortable to stay on a ship for the rest of his days. Ghost as well was suffering. He would spend his days mostly sleeping, though the warmer the weather and the worst it became for him. Direwolves were not made for hot weather and they were definitely not made to be on ships either.

It had taken more than six moons to reach Slaver's Bay – or what it was called now, Dragons' Bay – and for more than half that time, the Free Folk had spent their days puking their guts out. Only now they were starting to get used to the constant motion of the waves. They had gotten lucky that the weather had been favourable or Jon couldn't imagine how everyone would have fared.

They had stopped in Volantis to buy some much needed supplies, since the food and water they got from Lord Manderly in White Harbour had barely lasted until they had reached Braavos. They bought some supplies there as well, though feeding more than 40'000 people with the few golden coins he had hadn't been an easy feat – luckily a lot of the freefolk were accomplished fishermen or they would surely have starved by now.

All everyone seemed to be talking about both in Braavos and Volantis had, of course, being the Dragon Queen. The way they talked about her you would think they were speaking of a goddess and not a mere mortal woman. The adoration in their voices and eyes was rather frightening if he was honest. It was more than love – though everyone seemed to love her –, it was utter devotion. The kind of devotion that would push you to lay down your life for her without a second thought. Who was this woman who could inspire such sentiments in people she didn't even rule?

The closer they got to Meereen and the harder the urge to turn back around became. He wondered if he was making the biggest mistake of his life, coming here. Had he been murdered, resurrected, found out his entire life had been a lie and then betrayed and exiled by his own sister, just to be burned alive by his own aunt?

Would she even believe him when he told her who he really was and why was he there? Or would she think he was trying to steal the throne of Westeros from her – though it wasn't hers as much as it wasn't his – and deal with him like she dealt with all her enemies? With fire and blood?

Jon wasn't oblivious to the fact that while people all over Essos seemed to love her, they were terrified of her as well. They talked of the Dragon Queen with a sort of awe that was both reverential fear and respect. He had seen those strange priests and priestesses of the Red God – just like the lady Melisandre –, speak of her like she was their Chosen One, the prophesized hero who would bring the dawn, reborn from fire to remake the world and all that. That she burnt the guilty for their sins and elevated those that she deemed worthy, uncaring of the position they had been borne in.

Even Maester Aemon had been convinced that Daenerys had been the one. The Princess that Was Promised. (Jon wondered if the old man had made it to the Dragon Queen and where he and Sam were now. Were they in Meereen with Daenerys? Were they even still alive?)

For Jon it was all nonsense, of course. There weren't heroes anymore in this shitty world, let alone prophesized ones. Daenerys Targaryen was just a woman. A very powerful one, certainly, but just a woman nonetheless. A woman whose father had been the Mad King, and though Jon tried not to judge people by who their parents were – it would be very hypocritical for him to do since he had believed all his life he was the bastard son of Ned Stark – he couldn't help but be wary of her nonetheless.

Still, Jon desperately needed her help. Because as much as he would like nothing more than to turn the ship back around and go as far away from there as possible, he couldn't. He had nowhere else to go, for starters. But it was more than that. The Free Folk needed him. He had made a promise to them, that he would help them. But all he had been able to do was move them from one place to another, first the Wall, then the North and neither place had made them feel welcome, the opposite in fact. Sansa had wanted to kill them all if they had remained at the Wall, let alone establish themselves in the Gift, like Jon had first promised them they could do. And the Night's Watch wasn't comfortable with having the Wildings at the Wall, so they couldn't remain there anyway.

Jon tried not to think of Sansa too much, because the emotions she stirred up in him made him mad with rage. He had thought the lowest, the most betrayed he could feel, had been after he had been resurrected and realized that he had been murdered by his own Brothers. People he trusted. The Night's Watch was supposed to become his family when he swore his vows. But family, real family, didn't murder each other.

And family, real family, didn't betray each other either. How could Sansa do what she did to him? She had been the first person he told the truth of himself to. And she had betrayed him in the worst possible way. He had trusted her. He trusted that his sister would keep his secret, and instead she had told every member of the northern Houses the truth, before accusing him of being an oathbreaker, even though he had told her the truth of how he had been murdered and resurrected, and then he had been banished from his own home.

What had happened to her to make her this way? Or had she always been this way and he had never noticed? Sure, the Sansa he had known had been spoilt and naïve, had followed Catelyn's example in everything, including in how to treat 'the bastard' but he had never thought she was malicious in nature. Jon would like to blame Littlefinger for that, but he couldn't. Littlefinger's influence on Sansa might have been great, but Sansa had made the decision to exile him all on her own. And Jon knew that she did that to protect her own power. Sansa had been named Queen, something she had dreamed of her entire life, and she didn't want the man she had always thought of as her bastard brother – the brother who was beneath her – to steal what was hers.

But Jon had no interest in being King. He just wanted to return home and he wanted to warn the realm of what was coming. How could he convince people that an enemy they didn't believe in, was going to kill them all?

But Sansa couldn't be allowed to remain Queen of the North either. While he didn't want to be King, he needed to get control of the North or they would all die. As long as Sansa remained Queen of the North the northerners would remain oblivious and unprepared and when the Night King and the Army of the Dead would come, and they would come, it would be too late to do anything about it. They would be slaughtered and then being brought back as more mindless soldiers for the undead army.

And that brought him back to why was he there, about to dock in Meereen. Daenerys Targaryen had resources – including three dragons – that he and his people desperately needed. And it seemed, if the rumours were true, she was also the only person in the world who knew how to produce Valyrian steel. He didn't know if there was any truth to it but if it was…

Jon was brought back to the here and now by Ghost nudging his muzzle against the back of his hand. "Hey, boy!" He said to him with a smile. "Bloody hot weather, huh? I already miss the freezing cold of the North and I'm sure you do too."

Ghost gave a little whine and put his paw over his head, tongue dangling out of his mouth pitifully. Jon chuckled and rubbed his head fondly. He was so grateful for Ghost's loyalty, he didn't know what he would without him.

"I, for my part, am relieved not be freezing my balls off anymore." Davos said, joining his side on deck.

"You're a southerner. Of course, you would feel that way." Jon said with a smirk at the old man.

"You're all southerners for me! And every place south of the Wall smells like piss anyway." A booming voice from behind them said. Jon turned around and rolled his eyes at his ginger friend.

"You haven't been to King's Landing. That is one _smelling_ city." Davos replied.

"Is that that hellhole with that stupid iron chair everyone has been bickering like children over? You kneelers are dumb. Hope this Dragon Queen is smarter."

Jon shrugged, hoping so too.

"Is it true? Does she really have three dragons?"

"That's what the stories say. But who knows if they're really as big as they say. The last dragon before they became extinct in Westeros wasn't bigger than a cat." Jon replied, though he hoped the stories were true. Dragons, real dragons like the ones used by the dragonriders of old, would be a huge advantage against the army of the dead.

"What happens if she uses these three large dragons to kill us all?" Davos asked.

Tormund shrugged. "Better than becoming a mindless slave for that undead fucker."

"So, are we really doing this? Entering the dragon's den, so to say, in the hope that she would believe us and somehow, for some miracle, decide to help us?" Davos asked, unable to disguise his trepidation.

"I'm her nephew. Let's hope she believes that and that the fact that we're family means more to her than it did Sansa."

"Let's hope…" Davos said, but he didn't look very reassured. Jon didn't feel reassured either. The last time he had trusted family, he had been betrayed. Would it happen again?

A few hours later they were finally entering the port of Meereen. It was still about mid-morning but the sun was already bright and warm, illuminating a clear blue sky. The city walls, higher than the walls in Winterfell and built in probably all the colours known to men, were a very impressive sight, though no city walls could ever be as impressive as the Wall.

He could see what he knew was the Great Pyramid in the distance, so high it seemed the top could touch the clouds. That was the place where the Dragon Queen resided.

He felt his heart accelerating its beats and went to rub at his chest, to be precise the scar over his heart covered by his thin shirt. He felt almost naked in those flimsy clothes but the weather was so hot that he couldn't stand anything else.

Jon was one of the first people to descend from the ship but he was so busy looking around himself, taking stock of the impressive fleet docked at the harbour – there were more ships that he had ever seen in any place, ever –, all sporting the intimidating black and red banner of House Targaryen, that he didn't notice the small figure standing a few feet away and looking intently at him.

Jon had still trouble confronting the fact that, technically, the three-headed dragon of House Targaryen, was his sigil as well. He was a dragon, though he didn't feel much like one. Though, to be honest, he had never felt much like a wolf either. He had wanted to be a Stark when he was younger, a true Stark, while, at the same time, knowing that he would never be one, not only because he was a bastard, but simply because he didn't feel like one. Jon had loved and admired Ned Stark like no one else in his life, but he had never been like him, as much as he had strived to be.

But since he was murdered and then resurrected, since he had realized who he really was, and especially later, since he had been betrayed by his own flesh and blood, he had stopped trying to live up to the expectations of a dead man, one who – as much as Jon understood his reasons – had lied to him about who he really was his entire life and had allowed him to throw his life away at the Wall with murderers and rapists.

Jon had forgiven Ned Stark for that, but the perfect image of the man he had believed to be his father had forever been tainted in his mind.

It took a few minutes of squinting, covering his eyes from the sun, before he could make out the features of the figure in the distance. For a moment he thought he was seeing a ghost or an apparition.

But no, this person wasn't Ned Stark. For starters, this person was very clearly a young girl. But the face, the grey eyes, the dark hair.

No, it couldn't be. He was seeing things. Jon had finally lost his mind. Well, he _was_ a Targaryen, no? Being crazy was part of the deal. Still, he walked closer, cautiously, until they were standing face to face.

"Jon!" The apparition said, her eyes smiling at him, though the rest of her face remained blank.

"Arya?" Jon whispered, still afraid the figure in front of him was going to disappear like smoke.

"Yes!" The ghost laughed, tears flooding her dark grey eyes, so much like his own. "Yes, it's me!"

"Arya!" Jon finally shouted, running the last few steps separating them and then diving to hug her to his chest.

She was real and warm and _right there_ and Jon felt like he was dreaming, or dying again, but in the sweetest way possible. Small, though taller than the last time he had seen her, but still his little Arya Underfoot.

"Arya! Arya! Arya!" He kept chanting her name, unable to believe what he was seeing and feeling. Tears of joy, for once, fell down his face and he hold her closer.

It was long minutes before they moved away from each other but Jon still had the urge to embrace her again and never let her go.

"What…? What are you doing here?" He asked her, still in disbelief. He noticed Davos and Tormund coming closer to them but both men kept silent and kept their distance.

Arya shrugged. "It's a very long story, one I will tell you but not now. But you…what are you doing here? The last I heard you had been named Lord Commander of the Night's Watch?"

"Long story as well. But, I mean, does the Dragon Queen know you're here?"

Arya laughed. "Yes, of course. Nothing goes on in her city without her knowing about it. She knows and she knows who I am. I'm one of her most trusted advisors, in fact." She said with pride in her voice.

Jon frowned, not liking the sudden suspicion he felt in his heart. "You're an advisor to the Targaryen queen? You, a Stark?"

Arya nodded. "You will come to realize that Daenerys doesn't care from what family one comes from, if they were born nobles or commoners, legitimate or not. She judges people on their own merits."

"Hum." Jon merely said in response. Already, this Dragon Queen seemed too good to be true, which caused him to be even more suspicious. What was the catch?

"So, are you here to meet her?" Arya asked.

Jon nodded. "Yes. I'm here to request an audience with the Queen."

"Good. I'll accompany you. And her Unsullied will escort us." Arya said, indicating the soldiers that were just now making their way closer to them. "She thinks she's so sneaky but I noticed they were tailing me since I left the Great Pyramid."

"She sent soldiers to spy on you?" Jon asked, incapable of thinking nothing but the worse of this Dragon Queen, through no fault of her own though. He took note of the famed eunuchs soldiers, who looked grim and serious, standing at attention and not moving a muscle.

"No, of course not. It's just that I left so abruptly when I heard there were ships approaching bearing a reversed Stark sigil, that I'm sure she thought to send soldiers after me to protect me and keeping an eye on me, though she knows very well I don't need protection."

"So, you trust her?" Jon asked, the disbelief evident in his tone.

"I do. You'll trust her too once you get to know her. You'll see. She's like no one I've ever met, and she's certainly nothing like every other monarch I've ever met either."

Jon nodded, though he wasn't as hopeful as Arya about it. Still, he decided to keep his real thoughts to himself and kept things light. "Are you sure your opinion of her has nothing to do with the fact that she rides dragons? I remembered how you basically worshipped Visenya Targaryen."

"She rides _one_ dragon. The largest, Drogon. And yes, maybe a little. But I would think the same of her even if she weren't a dragonrider who brought dragons back to life."

Jon was more than a little alarmed to notice the same look the Braavosi and the Volanteneses sported while talking about Daenerys Targaryen was present in Arya's eyes as well. Arya loved the Dragon Queen. It was plain to see.

He wished he could feel reassured by such a thing but it had the opposite effect. Was Arya being manipulated by Daenerys Targaryen? Was he going to be betrayed by his favourite sibling as well? He couldn't even bear such a thought. He had thought he had lost Arya and it had almost destroyed him. Now that she was right here with him again, he would not lose her, ever, and he would not let the Dragon Queen play her games on his little sister either.

Arya, oblivious to his thoughts, kept walking, leading him and his party inside the city walls. The city of Meereen was very impressive, Jon had to admit. Though it was enormous, it didn't smell like he imagined King's Landing did.

Arya started pointing at things here and there. There were small fountains made with a strange black marble that depicted dragons in every street they passed through and Arya explained that the Queen had a special water system built underneath the city and in Astapor and Yunkai as well that brought the water from sources like rivers and lakes directly into the city. The water flowed from the fountains day and night without ever stopping so the citizens could benefit from clean, fresh water all the time and for free. There were also public bathhouses, Arya explained, and places called fulleries, in which people could pay others to wash their clothes.

Then they passed a pyramid, smaller than the one the Queen resided in, where a long queue of people stood, waiting in line patiently.

"This is one of the three healing houses in the city." Arya explained. "People who needs cures for their ailments or grave maladies come here. And it's free, of course. Though the healers that work there are paid a stipend by Daenerys. She comes here as often as she can to help the ills herself as well. I did the same more than once. It's tiring work but exhilarating."

Then they saw another group of people, everyone looking as unlike each other as it could be (some had skin so dark they looked like they had painted it with coal, others looked as pale as milk, some had even darker hairs than his, or red hair like his friend Tormund, or blonde hair – possibly a little darker than the Targaryen hair, or even blue or green hair), gathered around a wooden platform, in the middle of the largest square he had ever seen in his life, though because of the sheer number of people filling it, it looked almost small.

Just in front of the platform people stood, once again in line one behind the other, in front of six people who carried various foods in their hands while most of the goods were left on the platform. Jon realized with surprise that the people on the platform were distributing food to the citizens waiting in line and to those waiting all around the square.

"Every single person in the city receives food for free." Arya explained to him. "The fields and orchards around Dragons' Bay and the terrace gardens in the pyramids are worked by farmhands under Daenerys' direct employment. Part of the food produced is sold while the other part is used to feed the population. Every person receives flour, bread, eggs, milk, cheese, butter, oil, meat, fish, onions, garlic, potatoes, fruits, vegetables, legumes – the types of fruits, legumes and vegetables change every day and so do the meat and fish – salt, some herbs and spices, honey and vinegar. If the people want something different though, something particular, they have to buy it at the market. Though Dragons' Bay trades with the rest of Essos, we are completely self-sufficient. Not only we produce food, but also salt, glass, spices, fabrics, spirits. And you have to see all the inventions Daenerys came up with. A lot of people think her mad, and maybe she is, but she's _brilliant_."

Jon looked at the smile, bright on Arya's face, and realized that this Arya was both like and very unlike the child he left behind in Winterfell to go to the Wall. This Arya looked like an exuberant child but also mature – sophisticated even – and…peaceful, like she had found the place in the world where she belonged. It was disconcerting.

Jon couldn't really appreciate all that Arya was showing him. Sure, it all looked amazing but it also brought dread to his stomach. Once again, the thought 'it's too good to be true' came to his mind and it wouldn't leave.

Finally, after Arya had also showed him the 'learning houses' (where everyone learnt how to write, read and count), the public library and the pigeons houses (where pigeons were trained to deliver letters like the ravens in Westeros, though everyone could use the pigeons to deliver messages as long as they paid a small fee to the owners/trainers), they reached the Great Pyramid. Other Unsullied soldiers stood in front of the double doors of the pyramid though they stepped aside when they saw Arya was with Jon and his party.

Most of the Free Folk stayed outside for the moment, only Davos, Tormund and Ghost followed behind him.

Arya led them inside the cavernous environment and said, "She probably won't be able to receive you immediately. She has to see to her petitioners first. But I'm sure she won't make you wait long. Also, I have to warn you, Theon is here."

"Theon?" Jon growled the name of the former hostage/ward of Winterfell. "What is he doing here? That traitor!"

"Daenerys and Yara Greyjoy are allies so Daenerys pardoned Theon – he didn't kill Bran and Rickon or I would have killed him myself. She's here as well by the way. So is Tyrion Lannister, Edric Storm – one of the bastard sons of Robert Baratheon, though Daenerys will soon legitimize him – and Prince Quentyn Martell. Oh, Varys the Spider and Ser Barristan Selmy as well. Ser Barristan is one of the members of Daenerys' Queensguard, so is Jorah Mormont. Wasn't Jeor Mormont your Lord Commander?"

Jon nodded, a little overwhelmed by all that Arya was telling him.

Arya looked at him sheepishly. "Sorry, too much information all together, hum? It's just that…I'm so excited to see you, Jon. I still can't believe you're here."

"I know. I feel the same way." Jon said to her with a sincere smile. "But, how are you, really? Are you well?"

Arya smiled at him. "Yes. I am well, really well."

"Good. That's all that matters."

Arya nodded back at him and hugged him again. "I love you, Jon. I realized I hadn't said it yet."

Jon hugged her back, holding back tears once again. "I love you too, little sister. Always."

Once they had broken the embrace, Arya said, almost as an afterthought. "Oh, Rhaenys Targaryen is here as well."

Jon froze. "Rhaenys Targaryen?"

Arya nodded, misinterpreting his reaction. "Yes. You know, the daughter of Rhaegar Targaryen and Elia Martell? Turns out she didn't die during the Sack of King's Landing. Varys smuggled her out of the city. She's a dragonrider now and everything. She rides Viserion, one of Dany's dragons, the one named after her brother Viserys. The third one is Rhaegal, named after Rhaegar. I would have thought Rhaenys would have ridden the dragon named after her father but…" Arya shrugged her shoulders but Jon had stopped listening at that point.

 _Rhaenys Targaryen_. The name kept repeating itself in his head. _Rhaenys Targaryen_. Rhaegar's daughter. That meant…

'I have a sister.' He thought but the concept was just too complex to grasp properly. 'A sister that will hate me as soon as she finds out who I am.'

Suddenly, everything seemed a thousand times more difficult than it had been before. That feeling of dread grew and expanded, making it difficult to breathe. Only Ghost's calm and silent presence at his side allowed him to keep his clarity.

After going up several floors, more than Jon was able to keep count, Arya led Jon and his party to an elegant sitting room and told them to wait there. She ordered some servants to bring them food and something to drink, told them to tell the queen there were guests that wanted an audience with her and sat with Jon and his friends to wait.

Jon ate the delicious food in front of him – some things he didn't even know the name of – and the too-sweet wine but he didn't taste any of it. The time passed slowly and his impatience grew.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, a servant entered the room again and bid them to follow him. Jon took a deep breath once in front of the high doors that hid the throne room from his view and then the doors opened and he stepped inside.


	8. Tyrion I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter, this one from Tyrion's POV. Next one is from Dany's POV and Dany and Jon will finally meet. Who's excited? I certainly am to write it. Read and comment, let me know what you think!

** Tyrion I **

“Well, that’s an interesting development.” Tyrion said, eyes watching Daenerys and her niece walk away while his mind was still trying to process what Varys had just revealed. “Ned Stark’s bastard is not actually _Ned Stark’s_ bastard. And he’s not Jon _Snow_ either. Is it Sand, Blackfyre…?”

Varys turned to look at him, his expression inscrutable. “Jon Snow is not a Snow but neither is he a Sand or a Blackfyre.”

Tyrion raised his eyebrow at him. “Oh? Did you leave something out when you told our Queen the news of Jon’s parentage?”

Varys sighed. “It was necessary. I need time to figure out what to do with this information and I didn’t want to worry Her Grace needlessly.”

“I don’t understand…” Or rather, he did, but he hoped Varys didn’t mean what he thought he meant.

“My allegiance is with the Queen. But a male heir could change things. I don’t want Daenerys to worry that her right to the throne could be in question. Rhaegar and Lyanna Stark married under the Old Gods in Dorne, all the witnesses to their marriage are dead, and Rhaegar was already married with Elia Martell – a princess of Dorne – and he had two children with her already. Not everyone will recognize such a marriage as valid. However, there might be some who still prefer Jon Snow to her just because he’s a man and he was born and grew up in Westeros and the fact that he was raised by the man who was considered the most honourable of the Seven Kingdoms could be another point in Jon Snow’s favour.”

“So, what does that mean? Are you planning on changing sides? Backing Jon Snow over Daenerys?” Tyrion asked but he felt he already knew the answer to that question.

Varys scoffed. “Of course not. I serve the realm and Queen Daenerys is what’s best for the realm. There’s no one better than her, I’m absolutely sure of it. Jon Snow might reveal himself to be just as good as her in time but I don’t know him. I know the Mother of Dragons though. She went from a beggar to the most powerful person in the world in less than a decade. She brought dragons back into the world after they went extinct. She abolished slavery all over Essos. She has the greatest army this world has ever known. The Dothraki, who have never followed a woman before, revere her as a God, and are now ready to cross the Narrow Sea for her. Most importantly, Daenerys Targaryen grew up with the idea that she would be Queen one day and she was taught _how_ to be one. Daenerys Targaryen knows how to rule. She’s willing to shoulder such a responsibility. She’s aware that a ruler serves the people. She won’t be like Robert Baratheon. I’m sure Jon Snow gained some experience as a leader while he was Lord Commander but would he even want to become King of the Seven Kingdoms anyway? What good is a King who doesn’t want to be King?” Varys asked rhetorically. He stopped then, dark frown covering his face and added, “Like I said, I serve Queen Daenerys and if Jon Snow proves to be a threat to her rule then…well…”

Varys didn’t need to finish that sentence. Tyrion understood very well what he meant to say. He merely nodded his head and changed the subject. “Yes, Daenerys knows how to rule. Everyone is Essos can attest to that. I won’t be surprised if, in years to come, the Essosi will dubbed Daenerys’ ruling years as the Golden Age of Essos.”

“And hopefully of Westeros as well.” Varys agreed.

They weren’t exaggerating either. Tyrion was a cynical man. He didn’t believe in anything because everything he had believed in, he ended up being disappointed in, one way or another. But he believed in Daenerys Targaryen.

When Varys had brought him to Meereen, Tyrion had been convinced the Dragon Queen would have him executed on sight. He hadn’t particularly cared either. After killing his father because both him and his sister had wanted him dead for something they knew he hadn’t done and then finding out his own brother had made him believe Tysha, his wife, had been a whore, he hadn’t care if he lived or died. Everything seemed meaningless after that.

Tyrion could never forgive Jaime for what he did, especially because Tyrion had trusted Jaime more than anyone. Just like he couldn’t forgive his own actions against her.

He had been a broken man when he had met Daenerys Targaryen. At first, after Daenerys had decided not to have him executed after all, all he had wanted was revenge on his family. He wanted Cersei and Jaime dead, but first he wanted them stripped of everything they had. He still wanted that.

But the more he got to know Daenerys Targaryen and the more he started to believe in her, in what Varys had been telling him all along. Daenerys Targaryen was Westeros’ best hope.

Tyrion wanted Daenerys on the Iron Throne more than he wanted anything else in the world.

That didn’t mean that he wanted Jon Snow harmed either. And Tyrion was afraid Varys had exactly that in mind.

“You know that Daenerys will never let you harm her nephew, right? There’s very little she cares more than family and Jon Snow, legitimate or not, _is_ the blood of the dragon.”

Varys nodded. “I hope it won’t come to that. I was, actually, thinking more of marriage for the two of them. It would certainly solve a lot of their problems. Daenerys has Dorne, the Iron Islands and the Stormlands on her side already. With you we could have the Westerlands. We could free Edmure Tully from the Lannisters and Arya Stark could convince him to support Daenerys’ claim, if Sansa Stark doesn’t get to him first. If we help Jon Snow get the North back, and if Daenerys marries him, not only both their claims would be united, but Daenerys would have five out of seven kingdoms on her side with very little effort.”

“Yes, that sounds rather convenient. But what happens if Jon and Daenerys don’t want to marry each other? Daenerys would be willing to marry out of convenience, she did it before, when she married Khal Drogo and I know she would have married that Meereenese noble if he hadn’t been killed. But I know she would prefer to avoid it and marry for love instead. Our queen is a romantic at heart. And I know she desires someone who would be willing to share the responsibility of ruling, an equal. Could Jon Snow be that man? From what I’ve heard of him, I believe so. But he’s also extremely stubborn. What happens if he doesn’t want to marry her? What happens if his very existence becomes a threat to her throne? Would you just…get rid of him?”

“If I have to, yes. But, like I said, I hope it won’t come to that. We just have to push the two of them towards each other discretely and hope for the best. Daenerys does need an equal at her side, someone who won’t be king only in name. For her sake, as well as his, I hope Jon Snow is that man. Though, of course, their possible marriage could come with their own set of problems. Jon Snow was a man of the Night’s Watch. In the North they see him as a deserter and oathbreaker. The rest of the Kingdoms won’t probably care but in the North, they do. If Jon Snow marries our Queen, we need to ‘clean up’ his public image first.”

Tyrion nodded again, then asked, “You know that, if Jon Snow dies by your hand, both Daenerys and Arya Stark would vie for your head, right?”

“Daenerys would burn me alive, so she won’t be vying for my head. Arya Stark most definitely though.” Varys looked extraordinarily calm for a man who was talking about his possible death. “However, as long as she continues supporting Daenerys, even after Jon Snow’s death, then it will be worthy. But that will be a last resort. I’m willing to do whatever it takes to see Daenerys Targaryen as the Queen of Westeros. However, I don’t enjoy violence and killing a good, honest man, is not something I would enjoy either.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, then.” Tyrion echoed Varys’ words. Like Varys, there was nothing he wouldn’t do to see Daenerys on the throne, but he hoped being complicit in Jon Snow’s murder won’t be one of those things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a big fuck you to season8, by the way. But, don't worry, nobody is killing Jon Snow, let alone Dany's advisors. The best way to make alliances is marriage, after all. Marriage, in fact, would have solved everything in canon but D&D wanted Mad Daenerys and so they had to throw all logic out the window for that to happen. But I'm not D&D, thank god!


	9. Daenerys I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning before you read this chapter. Until now you've seen how other people see Daenerys, but it doesn't mean that what they see and who she really is are the same thing. Daenerys' motivations are selfless, she genuinely wants to help people, she wants to improve their lives, she doesn't want to be queen because she wants power for power's sake. But that doesn't mean that the methods she uses to achieve this are always morally correct or 'honourable'. She's a believer of the saying, 'the end justifies the means'. In a way, she's similar to Margaery Tyrell in her manipulations, but with the usual ruthlessness of Daenerys Targaryen in canon, when necessary (except for the season that won't be named). If you expected Daenerys to be some kind of perfect hero, you’ll be disappointed.
> 
> Anyway, hope you like this anyway. Tell me what you think!

****

**Daenerys I**

Rhaenys followed her to her private quarters, both of them waiting to speak until they were alone. Daenerys asked Missandei to have the servants draw her a bath, scalding hot as for her preference.

Missandei nodded and left the two of them alone. Daenerys sat on an armchair and Rhaenys sat on the other, a low table separating them, filled with fresh fruits, warm bread, jams of various flavours, freshly squeezed orange, butter, eggs, cooked sausages, beams, tea, hot chocolate, milk and coffee, so they could both break their fast. Finally, they could talk in private.

"Do you really think this Jon Snow is really my father's son?" Rhaenys asked, voice both hurt and angry.

"I do. If you think about it, it does make sense. Ser Barristan told me the story. How Ned Stark went to Dorne, at the Tower of Joy, how he fought against the best knights in the realm – ser Arthur Dayne, ser Oswell Whent, ser Gerold Hightower – for his sister, how he found Lyanna Stark bleeding, dying. How he rode back North with both Lyanna's body and a baby, his supposed bastard Jon Snow. The timing of things, the secrecy behind Jon Snow's mother, the fact that Ned Stark was considered the most honourable man in the Seven Kingdoms and yet, he supposedly fathered a bastard, betraying his newly married wife? It would make sense that Ned Stark, after finding Lyanna dying of a birthing fever, would take his sister's son and raise him as his own to protect him from Robert Baratheon.

"Also, I saw visions in the House of the Undying in Qarth, one was of Rhaegar who told me that the 'dragon must have three heads'. Three Targaryens for three dragons. At the time, I thought it was about me, Sirys and someone else, the third head. But then you showed up. And then Sirys died and then Aemon showed up, and I thought it was about him. But he died as well. And neither Sirys nor Uncle Aemon ever rode a dragon. But you do, as do I. So, who's the third? It _must_ be him, don't you see? The third head, Rhaegar's son. I also had another vision in the House of the Undying. _A blue flower growing from a chink in a wall of ice._ _A Wall of Ice_. The Wall. And Jon Snow was a brother of the Night's Watch. And Rhaegar crowned Lyanna Stark 'Queen of Love and Beauty' at Harrenhal with a crown of winter roses, _blue flowers_. It all fits, don't you see?"

Rhaenys frowned. "Maybe you're right. Maybe he really is Rhaegar's son. But that doesn't mean we can trust him. Why did he even come here? Do you really believe that he was killed and then resurrected? Because I don't. He must have left the Wall once he heard about Sansa Stark taking Winterfell back so that he could be the one to be crowned King, since Robb Stark made him his heir and not his sister.

"But, of course, after Sansa was the one to assemble an army and the one to fight and win against the Boltons, why would the Northern lords choose him at their King and not her? Not only he was considered by everybody the bastard son of Ned Stark, and here she was, Sansa, Ned Stark's legitimate daughter, but he's also a deserter and an oathbreaker. Maybe Jon Snow even thought that by revealing his true parentage, he would gain the support of the Northern Lords. But, of course, that is foolish. The Northern Lords would never follow a Targaryen over a Stark, whether said Targaryen grew up in the North and was raised by Ned Stark himself or not."

Rhaenys had given Daenerys much to worry about but probably not for the reasons Rhaenys was hoping. Daenerys had started to paint a picture in her mind of what had happened in the North and she didn't like it one bit, because, if she was right, Sansa Stark would pose a problem that Daenerys hadn't foreseen.

Daenerys kept those thoughts to herself though and instead said to Rhaenys, "I know you would like to think the worst of Jon Snow, just because he is the living embodiment of Rhaegar's betrayal against your mother. But it's not fair to blame him for Rhaegar's sins. He is your brother, _my nephew_ , whether you like it or not."

"Half-brother." Rhaenys retorted, a little petulantly. "And you're being naïve, Daenerys. Just because he shares our blood, doesn't mean we should treat him like family and trust him implicitly."

"This is not about being naïve. This is about the fact that there's so few of us left in the world and we should not be fighting amongst ourselves. We need to be united because our enemies are numerous and only together we can defeat them."

Rhaenys huffed, but she had a tiny smile on her face now. "Why must you always be so logical? You make it difficult, arguing with you."

Daenerys grinned and shrugged her shoulders. "My queenly prerogative, I suppose."

They laughed a little together but Rhaenys soon turned serious and said, "Just be careful around him, Daenerys. We don't know him, and I don't want to see you get hurt. If he does, brother or not, I will kill him myself."

Daenerys smiled at her. "I appreciate the sentiment, dear niece, but I don't think we have anything to worry about on that front."

Before Rhaenys could add something in reply, Missandei was back with Ornela – one of her Dothraki handmaids – and two servants, buckets filled with boiled water in each hand. They prepared her bath and soon there was no more time to talk while they all helped Daenerys get ready for the day ahead.

After washing and braiding her hair in her usual elaborate style, spreading a fragrant blend of lemon and lavender oil on her skin and putting on the scarlet silk dress on, she was ready.

It was a long, sleeveless dress, slightly low-cut on the front – not too much, just enough to tease the round shape of her breasts – and two deep side slits, reaching mid-thigh, though the effect was mitigated by the breeches she always wore underneath her clothes. Her silver dragon necklace and her mother's ring completed the picture she presented. She didn't need to look at her reflection in the mirror to know that she looked stunning.

She always gazed at her own beauty with a dispassionate eye. She was the blood of old Valyria; ethereal, otherworldly beauty was just one of the characteristics that distinguished her kind, together with dragon-riding and the tradition to marry their own, to 'keep the bloodline pure'. It didn't particularly matter to her, but she knew that beauty could be used as a weapon, though like every other weapon, it needed to be used carefully, and deciding when and how to use it more effectively always required much consideration.

Voldemort would be horrified to know such a thing, but she had learnt a lot from him. Tom Riddle had used his charm and handsome appearance to manipulate and enchant, he had learnt to hide his true monstrous nature behind an angelic façade.

Daenerys was not the monster Voldemort was, but she was her own type of monster. Tyrion had been right when he said she was terrible. Only a monster would do the things she had done and not regret it. Her wrath, once provoked, was terrible to behold. She contented herself with the knowledge that all that she had done had been for something greater than her own selfish desires. Maybe that was enough to hope that her soul wasn't fractured beyond repair.

Dumbledore would be extremely disappointed in her, if he knew what she had become. Not that it mattered, of course. Wasn't she following his own example as well, after all? Seeing people as chess pieces to manoeuvre in a board. At least, she didn't actually _use_ them as expendable pawns, not like he had done with her.

Nonetheless, Dumbledore's example, just like Voldemort's, had been invaluable to her. They had been two leaders with opposite methods. Dumbledore had been deceptively kind and magnanimous to all, apparently seeing the good in people, giving all a chance, no matter their circumstance or where they came from. He was seen as an eccentric but brilliant man, and while everyone had feared his power, nobody had been really intimidated by him, and he had never gone out of his way to scare people into submission. People followed him because they loved and respected him. And he had played on that, he had used this carefully constructed mask to gather people to his side and keep them loyal to him.

Voldemort had been the opposite. He had basked on everyone's fear of him. Voldemort didn't understand love, and therefore he considered it a weakness. He hadn't tried to use love to gather followers on his side. But what he had was power, more than any other, even more than Dumbledore. And he had used that power to the best effect. People had been so terrified of him that they were afraid to utter his name. And those who followed him, because of that power, were in awe of him. He was the closest thing to a god they could reach. Maybe his followers had thought that they could shine on his reflected light.

Both leaders had been extremely effective in their own rights, but not perfect. Dumbledore, while loved by the Light Side, had not been respected by the Dark Side. The Dark Side hadn't even feared him. They thought him too soft, his methods too gentle. Even the way he had dealt – or not dealt – with the Ministry in her fifth year had been telling. The Minister hadn't feared Dumbledore's retaliation because he knew Dumbledore _wouldn't_ retaliate. Fudge could have never done what he did to Dumbledore, to Voldemort instead. He would have never thought to try in the first place. And that was because Dumbledore had been scared himself, scared he would get lost in the power he could accumulate if he only wanted to, because of Grindelwald and what had happened to Ariana.

Voldemort was the opposite. Voldemort had been the quintessential slytherin. He was probably the most ambitious person she had ever or would ever meet. He had wanted power more than anything else in the world, a power great enough to defeat death. _'There is no good or evil. There is only power and those too weak to seek it'_. For Voldemort there weren't any limits, not of morality, not of anything else. The only limit was what that someone was willing to do to achieve what they wanted, and Voldemort had been willing to do anything for immortality, his ultimate goal.

Everyone had been scared of him, even his own followers, but nobody had really loved him – except maybe Bellatrix. Without love, there was no real loyalty. Power based on fear was brittle, unstable, like walking on a frozen lake, just waiting for the ice to break.

To use a common expression, Voldemort had used too much stick and Dumbledore had fed the horse too much carrot.

Ser Jorah would never really know how important what he said to her had been. But that conversation with him in Qarth had been a revelation for her. That was the secret. Love _and_ Fear. You needed both to not only rise to power but also to maintain that power. One could not exist without the other, not unless she wanted to be assassinated before the age of thirty.

Not everyone could love you, of course, but as long as most people did, and as long as you kept those that didn't in check, using fear instead to subdue them, you would probably be able to rule effectively. The real trick was to figure out when to use love and when to use fear instead, and how much of both as well. Too much fear and they could bite back like caged animals, too much love and they would think you weak and easily defeated – especially because she was a woman. Ruling was a never-ending chess match – or Cyvasse, the corresponding game in this world –, no wonder it was called 'the game of thrones'.

And in this game, Daenerys could never be herself. Only around people she really trusted she could shed her many masks and just be Daenerys, not the Dragon Queen, not the Mother of Dragons, and unfortunately, she could count those people on one hand and still be left with fingers to spare. Sometimes she didn't know where the lie ended and she began. Would she get lost in the lie someday?

She was constantly acting, constantly playing a part, shedding one skin and putting on another, depending on who she was dealing with and what was required of her. No wonder only Arya really knew and understood her. Who better than her, a former faceless man, knew what it was like to constantly change your face?

It was _exhausting_. Sometimes she just wanted to say, hell with all of this, and just leave for some remote island in the Summer Sea. But she knew she couldn't. People depended on her, she couldn't just leave them to their own devices. And now, with these talks of army of the dead and white walkers…

Was that the reason why she had been reborn in this world? Was that what Regulus had been trying to say in his own cryptic way? 'The last enemy to be defeated is death.' Did a real manifestation of death really existed in this world? And was Jon Snow really murdered and then resurrected?

This world had so much more magic that she had first thought during her childhood, when she had first started to remember who she had been before. And most of this magic was dangerous, if not outright deadly. And it all seemed connected to fire and ice, blood, life and death.

And now she was about to meet the man who seemed to be the very embodiment of all these elements. Her nephew, her brother's son. Arya's favourite sibling.

She was already predisposed to think well of him just for that. But she couldn't let her guard down, nonetheless.

She would greet him with the all warmth their relation required and, in the meantime, she would study him, learn what made him tick, and act accordingly. Jon Snow could turn out to be a very useful and important ally if she played her cards right.

She had played the same game with Tyrion, ser Barristan, and Rhaenys too, to a certain extent. It had the added bonus of people thinking she was merciful and forgiving. She was inclined to give people a second chance because she really did believe that people deserved one, but she was far from the selfless queen most people believed her to be.

The truth was, she had welcomed Tyrion into her council because she had seen the hatred Tyrion had for his family, his thirst for vengeance. Tyrion was a Lannister who hated the other members of his family. What could be more perfect than that? But she had also seen Tyrion's desire for acceptance and recognition and so, she had given it to him. Now Tyrion's loyalty to her was absolute.

She hated manipulating people like that, but sometimes it was necessary. And she really did like Tyrion, so, at least, she was honest in that. Tyrion was cunning and had a keen political mind, he knew how to play the game better than most. His counsel once she'd arrive in Westeros would be invaluable.

With ser Barristan it had been easier. The famous knight's desperation to regain his honour and make up for the fact that he had bent the knee to the Usurper, effectively breaking his vows, had been obvious from the start. Therefore, she had given him what he wanted, a place at her side, as a Queensguard. She had pardoned him for swearing loyalty to the Usurper and now ser Barristan would die protecting her without hesitation, his loyalty was so great.

The start of her relationship with Rhaenys had been a carefully planned mummery as well. That had now since changed. She trusted Rhaenys now, loved her not only because Rhaenys was her niece but simply because she was Rhaenys. But it didn't change the fact that she had manipulated Rhaenys when she had first met her.

That was why her relationship with Rhaenys would never equalled with her relationship with Arya. Arya had been the first and only person who had been able to fool her. Ironically, such a thing instead of angering her, had the opposite effect. When she had found out who Arya really was, Daenerys had yes, banished her from the city, but it was more because of wounded pride than because she had stopped trusting Arya. The moons away from her had made Daenerys realize such a thing, and all that she had been left with was pride. Pride and great affection, because Arya, as much as she was playing a part when the two had first met, had since started showing more and more of her real self as time passed. And Arya had proved to her once and for all that Daenerys could trust her when she had returned to Meereen to save Daenerys from the Waif.

That was why Arya was the person Daenerys trusted most in the world. Not because Arya had saved her life, but because Arya understood her better than anyone else. Sirys might have loved her, and Daenerys had considered Sirys her father in all but name, but not even he had understood her and the way she thought the way Arya did.

Daenerys' gift, more than the fact that she had magic, that she could walk through fire, that she had woken dragons from stone, was the fact that she could read people. That was not an innate trait, of course, but something that she had developed with years and years of dealing with people of every shape and size. She was able to learn how a person thought and what they wanted, what it was that drove them. And she could use all those things to her advantage. It wasn't a perfect method, like what had happened with Arya proved, - and some people were easier than other to understand – but it was often most effective.

And that was, for good or bad, yet another trait she had in common with Tom Riddle.

She wondered what type of person Jon Snow really was. Arya had told her a great deal about him, all things that made Daenerys rather eager to know him, but he could have changed since Arya last saw him, especially after all that she had heard he had been through. She certainly had during the years.

"My Queen, your petitioners are waiting." Ser Barristan said.

"Thank you, ser Barristan." Daenerys replied. "I will be down in a moment."

Daenerys took a deep breath, put on her 'benevolent Mhysa' mask in place and left her quarters before descending the broad marble stair to the throne room, Rhaenys and Missandei following behind her, ser Barristan and ser Jorah concluding the procession.

It was hours later, when the last petitioner had finally left, that she was informed that Jon Snow and his companions were waiting for an audience with her and that Arya had accompanied them.

Daenerys bid them entry, trying to ignore the way her heart had suddenly accelerated in her chest. She was nervous, and perhaps a little excited. But queens didn't get nervous or excited, or if they did, they never showed it outwardly.

She sat even straighter in her throne, which was nothing more than a simply carved wooden bench, folding her hands on her lap and put on an expression of placid curiosity on her face.

A few moments later, three men entered the room, stopping a few steps away from the stairs that led to the throne. One was rather old, maybe around ser Barristan's age, with a kind-looking face. Another one was incredibly tall and brawny, with a shocking mop of red hair on his head and face that reminded her of the Weasleys. And, finally, the third one, the one she knew immediately to be Jon Snow, stood in the middle. She immediately noticed the similarities with Arya. Same dark hair, same facial traits, same light skin, and though she couldn't see them from that distance, she knew he had the same dark grey eyes as well.

Arya had told her that Ned Stark had often remarked on the similarities between her and Lyanna. Jon Snow, it seemed, had took a great deal after his mother. That must have certainly served to hide him in plain sight and protect him from discovery.

She also couldn't help but notice how handsome he was, easily the most handsome man she had ever seen. Though she had imagined he would be taller, not that she could really complain, since she was usually the shortest person in a room. Well, expect for Tyrion, of course.

Missandei was just about to introduce her to her guests with her usual litany of titles when Daenerys raised her hand in the air to stop her.

"No need for all that. Jon Snow is, after all, family. Are you not?" The smile she sent him was both parts sweet and sharp. "Welcome to Meereen, _nephew_."


	10. Jon II

** **

** Jon II **

Jon entered the throne room with no small amount of trepidation, Davos and Tormund following him just a few steps behind. He observed with curiosity the ambiance around him, never having seen such an opulent place before. The hall was cavernous with high ceilings, and tiles and walls of purple marble. On both sides of the room there were several marble pillars, and amongst them burned tall candles. In front of every pillar stood an Unsullied, rigid and immobile, their faces inscrutable.

At the end of the long hall, the Queen herself sat at the top of a long set of stairs, on an ebony bench that was, for its simplicity and frugality, in stark contrast with the rest of the scene.

Only when he was standing just below the stairs, he finally saw her properly. Jon hadn’t spent much time imagining Daenerys Targaryen, that was true, but if he had, he wouldn’t have expected her to look so dainty and delicate. She was an exquisite beauty, that much he could ascertain, with her long silver hair half collected in braids and half left unbound to fall on her shoulders and chest and a face so lovely that no artist, no matter how talented, could adequately replicate it, and though he couldn’t say with certainty if she was or not the most beautiful woman _in the world_ , she was without doubt the most beautiful _he_ had ever seen.

The dress she was wearing was daring, bold red and showing much more skin than he was used to, looking smooth and pale like alabaster, and teasing enough of her generous curves to drive a man mad.

Jon didn’t miss the eloquent look his friend Tormund sent him and he thanked the gods the redhead didn’t voice his clearly lewd thoughts aloud.

Jon bowed to her in a sign of respect, but not subservience. He barely noticed the other people present in the room and standing at both sides of the queen until the woman next to her, beautiful in her own way as well, with dark skin and a mass of curls framing her face, started to speak. The queen raised her hand before the woman could say more than ‘you stand in the presence of Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen’.

 _“No need for all that.”_ She said, voice clear and pleasing, her accent refined and yet foreign, due, no doubt, to all the years she had spent in Essos, _“Jon Snow is, after all, family. Are you not?_ _Welcome to Meereen, nephew.”_ The smile that graced her face was both unsettling and enchanting.

Those words dissolved any doubt he might have had that Daenerys Targaryen was unaware of his identity. After Sansa’s public reveal in the hall at Winterfell in front of most of the northern lords, and the following six moons spent at sea, he imagined all of Westeros was aware of his identity by now. Why not Daenerys as well, given the presence of Varys the Spider among her council?

Daenerys, then, did something that broke all protocol. She stood from her seat and made her way down the stairs until she was standing right in front of him. She was petite, much more than he had thought while she was sitting down, but her presence in the room was strong. She captured all attention without much effort, her poise and beauty and grace doing much of the work.

Jon remembered when he had met Cersei Lannister all those years ago. He remembered thinking that she was beautiful but he had been left somewhat disappointed by the lack of _something_ he couldn’t explain when looking at her. And it wasn’t just the icy look in her green eyes.

 _This is what a queen looks like_ , his mind supplied without permission. He suppressed that thought immediately.

Though taken aback, Jon stood straight and swallowed his nervousness. His face was smooth of any expression when he replied, “It seems you are already aware of who I am, your Grace.”

Daenerys nodded. “You will forgive me, I hope, my prince, but my Master of Whispers saw fit to inform me only this morning. I would have received you sooner had I known of your arrival.”

Jon smiled, though it wasn’t really a sincere smile. He hated all the empty niceties that came along with dealing with nobles and royals. He just wished they could speak plainly. “I’m not a prince, your Grace, and, you needn’t worry yourself, we didn’t wait long.”

Daenerys grinned, “not to contradict you so soon after meeting you, but you _are_ a prince. You’re my brother’s son. The Usurper might have taken the Iron Throne away from our family but that doesn’t erase the three hundred years we ruled Westeros. You have royal blood running in your veins, and that is something no one can take away from you. So, if you’ll allow me, I would like to keep referring to you as ‘my prince’. Not doing so would feel disrespectful.”

Jon suppressed a sigh but understood her point and so, didn’t protest further. He nodded his head once and received a brilliant smile in return.

“And your journey?” Daenerys asked him then, “I hope it wasn’t troublesome. It is a rather long distance from the North to here, is it not?”

“The winds were kind, your Grace.” Jon merely answered, feeling impatient.

There was an air of falseness to the whole exchange that didn’t sit well with him. He also realized, both impressed and slightly irritated, that she had maneuvered the conversation in such a way that he had barely been able to get a word in. This was a woman who liked having control of any situation and that wanted things to go her way.

“I hope you will do me the courtesy of introducing me to your companions,” she said then, looking at Davos and Tormund with a curious air, “and I will do the same with mine.” She gestured behind her at the people still standing at the top of the stairs.

“Of course, your Grace. This is ser Davos Seaworth, the Onion Knight. And this is Tormund Giantsbane of the Free Folk.”

“It is wonderful to make your acquaintance.” Daenerys said, looking so sweet and harmless that Jon, for a moment, forgot all that he knew of her. He was willing to bet that was an impression she gave often, to allow those foolish enough to do so to underestimate her.

“Likewise, your Grace.” Ser Davos replied, always courteous, bowing in her direction. Tormund merely said ‘aye’ but didn’t bow, too much like kneeling for his tastes, Jon imagined.

“This is Princess Rhaenys of House Targaryen.” Daenerys said then, turning slightly in the direction of the person she was talking of. The woman in question – his sister, how strange it was to think about – curtsied slightly in his direction but her expression was not the least bit inviting. Jon bowed in reply nonetheless.

She was a beautiful woman, with tanned skin and very dark hair, and though he couldn’t see the colour of her eyes from that distance he could see they were dark as well. Her features were somewhat sharper than Daenerys’ and she was much taller as well. “It seems _the reports of her death were greatly exaggerated_.” The way Daenerys said those last words felt like she was quoting something or someone but he couldn’t say whom.

“Then we have Missandei of Naath,” she gestured at the woman Daenerys had interrupted before, “one of my most trusted advisors.” He bowed to her as well.

“And then my two Queensguard, ser Barristan Selmy and ser Jorah Mormont.” Ser Barristan looked at him with a small smile but ser Jorah glared openly at him.

“Now that the introductions are out of the way,” Daenerys said, in a sudden commanding voice, “what brings you to Essos, my prince?”

“If you intend to use your supposed relation with the Queen to beg for her help in taking back the North, I’m afraid you could have saved yourself a trip. Especially because, _I_ , for my part, am not convinced you are, in fact, my _brother_.” Jon turned sharply at Rhaenys’ words, unsurprised at her reaction and yet unable to suppress the wounded feeling in his chest all the same. Yet another family member that had rejected him.

“Rhaenys, please, no need to be so aggressive.” Daenerys reprimanded before turning towards him. Though Rhaenys was the oldest of the two, Daenerys was clearly the one with more influence on the other. If that was due to their respective roles, was yet to be established. “I hope you will forgive Princess Rhaenys. She’s wary of strangers.”

Before Jon could reply that it didn’t matter, Rhaenys spoke again, “especially those that claim to be my father’s son.”

“And she also needs to work on her manners.” Daenerys continued like Rhaenys hadn’t spoken. “I hope you won’t take offense.”

“Of course not.” Jon smiled a rather cold smile. Then, unable to keep silent any longer, he said, “though, forgive me, Princess Rhaenys, but I’m not _claiming_ to be anything.”

“You aren’t denying it either, though, are you?”

Before Jon could find an appropriate rebuttal, the doors opened again and Arya entered the room, Ghost faithfully at her side. He had heard what had happened to Nymeria, Arya’s direwolf. He couldn’t imagine being separated from Ghost in that way, though he knew Arya had done it to save Nymeria the same fate that had befallen Lady.

“Forgive me, Daenerys,” Arya said, “but I couldn’t resist being present. I hope you will allow me to stay.”

“Of course, Arya. You’re always welcome in my presence. And I doubt your brother will have something to object on the matter.” Then Daenerys turned towards Ghost. “Oh, this must be the famous Ghost.” She said with childlike wonder on her face. “Arya has told me about him and the rest of his pack.”

Jon found, despite himself, the expression on Daenerys Targaryen’s face at seeing a direwolf for the first time endearing. She looked like a young, carefree girl and not like the fierce conqueror he knew she really was.

Jon, already uncomfortable at the idea of dealing with royalty, a queen that just so happened to be the aunt he had never met, weary and wary both after everything that had happened, felt his discomfort increase tenfold at the strange effect this woman he had exchanged only a few words with, was already having on him. He didn’t like it one bit.

“May I maybe…would it be possible to pet him?” Daenerys asked, turning towards him.

“Only if he allows it, your Grace. Ghost is not a pet.”

Daenerys smiled. “No, of course not.” Still, she took a few steps closer to the white direwolf, tall enough that his muzzle was almost in line with her face. Then, very slowly, she raised her hand for him to smell. Ghost sniffed at her palm, and Jon felt his curiosity and distrust. Then a potent scent reached his nostrils, lemon and lavender, a delicious smell that sent a frisson of arousal down his spine.

Uncomfortable with his reaction, he tried to block the link he had with Ghost but to no avail. Ghost, now enthusiastic about the smell of Daenerys’ skin and completely forgetting his distrust, licked at her palm eagerly. Daenerys laughed, the sound pleasing like the jingle of small bells.

Jon savoured the taste of her skin like he was the one licking her and felt his face flaming in embarrassment. Ghost, completely uncaring of Jon’s discomfort, lapped up Daenerys’ attentions with eagerness. Daenerys stroked his fur for long moments, Ghost enjoying the attentions immensely and Jon feeling all of it like Daenerys was actually petting _him_.

Since his death and resurrection and the dream – or whatever it was – he had had while dead of living in Ghost’s skin, his link with Ghost had strengthened tremendously. Usually, he was very happy with it, but not that day.

It looked like Ghost, like everyone else who met Daenerys it seemed, had fallen under her spell. Ghost liking her should have put him at ease, and yet…

“This is all sweet and everything,” Tormund said with his usual brashness, and Jon hadn’t been more thankful of his friend’s complete lack of tact than in that moment, “but can we return to the reason why we came all this way? It was a fucking long journey, and we spent half of it vomiting. This place is also too bloody hot and I’m already sweating like a pig. You’re beautiful and everything, Dragon Queen, but that won’t serve to help me forget why we travelled half the world to come here.”

“Of course, forgive me, my Lord.” Daenerys said, looking more amused than offended.

“I ain’t no lord. Tormund works fine.”

“Well, Tormund, you’re right. And since I don’t particularly like spending too much time in this room, and since, if you are here for the reason I think, I would like for my entire council to be present, how about we relocate to my council chambers? This way we can all sit down and be comfortable. Also, if you’d like something to eat or drink, refreshments could be easily brought. Lord Tyrion never faces a council meeting without wine.”

“No offense, but I don’t like that coloured water you call wine. I want something stronger.”

Daenerys smiled. “And something stronger you’ll get then. And for you, my prince, ser Davos?”

“Wine is fine for me, your Grace,” ser Davos answered.

“And for you, ale, my prince?” Daenerys asked him then, violet eyes twinkling merrily. Her eyes were really mesmerizing. “It’s not northern ale but I hope it will be adequate.”

“I’m sure it’s fine.” Jon said, not caring in the slightest. Now that they were finally about to broach the subject of the Night King and the Army of the Dead, he couldn’t think about anything else.

“Very well, follow me then.” Daenerys said before turning towards one of her Unsullied and speaking very fast in what he assumed was Valyrian.

Jon could only hope Daenerys would believe him and decide to help. Otherwise, what the hell was he going to do?


End file.
